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Brief Screening Instrument of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder for Children and Adolescents 7–15 Years of Age

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Abstract

The objective of this paper is to develop a brief screening instrument of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for young victims of natural disasters. Data were derived from flood victims in 1998 and 1999 in Hunan, China. A representative population sample of 6,852 subjects 7–5 years of age was selected. Among them, 6,073 (88.6%) were interviewed. Multistage sampling was used to select the subjects and PTSD was ascertained with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: 4th Edition (DSM-IV). We randomly assigned 80% (4,851) of the study subjects to construct the screening instrument (construct model) and the remaining 20% (1,222) subjects to examine the model (validation model). Logistic regression analysis and receiver operating characteristics curves were utilized to select a subset of symptoms and cutoff point from the pre-structured questionnaires. A seven-symptom instrument for PTSD screening was selected. Scores of 3 or more on this instrument were employed to define positive cases of PTSD with a sensitivity of 96.9%, specificity 99.0%, positive predictive value (PPV) 82.6%, and negative predictive value (NPV) 99.8%. The brief screening instrument developed in this study is highly valid, reliable, and predictable.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by grant CMB 98-689 from the Chinese Medicine Board, New York. Drs Liu and Yang are recipients of international fellowship of University of Ottawa. Dr. Wen is a recipient of New Investigator’s award from Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). The authors thank Linbao Xiang, director of the Center of Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) of Yiyang city, Xiumin Zhang, director of the CDC of Anxiang county, Huaxian He, director of the CDC of Yueyang city, Linlin Li, director of the CDC of Xiangxi autonomy, Senlin Tang, director of the CDC of Datong lake district, Hunan, China, for their cooperation in this study.

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  1. AiZhong Liu

    Present address: Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, 501 Smyth Rd, Box 241, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1H 8L6

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology & Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Central South University, Xiangya Road 110, Changsha, Hunan, 410078, P. R. China

    AiZhong Liu, Hongzhuan Tan, Jia Zhou, Shuoqi Li, Tubao Yang, Zhenqiu Sun & Shi Wu Wen

  2. OMNI Research Group, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, 501 Smyth Rd, Ottawa, Canada, K1H 8L6

    AiZhong Liu, Tubao Yang & Shi Wu Wen

  3. Ottawa Health Research Institute, Clinical Epidemiology Program, University of Ottawa, 501 Smyth Rd, Ottawa, Canada, K1H 8L6

    AiZhong Liu, Tubao Yang & Shi Wu Wen

  4. Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, 501 Smyth Rd, Ottawa, Canada, K1H 8L6

    Shi Wu Wen

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  1. AiZhong Liu
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  2. Hongzhuan Tan
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  7. Shi Wu Wen
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Correspondence to AiZhong Liu.

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Liu, A., Tan, H., Zhou, J. et al. Brief Screening Instrument of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder for Children and Adolescents 7–15 Years of Age. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 38, 195–202 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-007-0056-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-007-0056-7

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