Reliability, Validity and Classification Accuracy of the South Oaks Gambling Screen in a Brazilian Sample

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability, validity and classification accuracy of the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) in a sample of the Brazilian population. Participants in this study were drawn from three sources: 71 men and women from the general population interviewed at a metropolitan train station; 116 men and women encountered at a bingo venue; and 54 men and women undergoing treatment for gambling. The SOGS and a DSM-IV-based instrument were applied by trained researchers. The internal consistency of the SOGS was 0.75 according to the Cronbach's alpha model, and construct validity was good. A significant difference among groups was demonstrated by ANOVA (F₂.₂₃₈ = 221.3, P < 0.001). The SOGS items and DSM-IV symptoms were highly correlated (r = 0.854, P < 0.01). The SOGS also presented satisfactory psychometric properties: sensitivity (100), specificity (74.7), positive predictive rate (60.7), negative predictive rate (100) and misclassification rate (0.18). However, a cut-off score of eight improved classification accuracy and reduced the rate of false positives: sensitivity (95.4), specificity (89.8), positive predictive rate (78.5), negative predictive rate (98) and misclassification rate (0.09). Thus, the SOGS was found to be reliable and valid in the Brazilian population.

GamTest: Psychometric Evaluation in a Low-Gambling General Population

“…Its items are dichotomous (accommodating ''yes'' or ''no'' answers), and an endorsement of five or more of them indicates pathological gambling. The SOGS has been found to be valid and reliable among several populations, including a Brazilian sample (de Oliveira et al, 2009), an Asian community sample in Singapore (Abdin et al, 2012), and a Chinese sample (Tang et al, 2010). Using Rasch modelling and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Strong et al (2003) reported that it may be possible to use a shortened version of the instrument to detect problem gambling.…”

An Assessment of the Psychometric Properties of Italian Version of CPGI

“…Despite the fact that in Italy the one widespread questionnaire used to assess the gambling problem is the SOGS questionnaire, we chose to use CPGI for several reasons. First of all because it revealed a factor structure that is one dimensional (De Oliveira et al 2009;Orford et al 2003) instead of the multidimensional result of the SOGS. The SOGS also presents an unacceptably high rate of false positive observations in non-clinical samples (Stinchfield 2002).…”