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Are the Kessler Psychological Scales suitable for screening for mental disorders in low-threshold mental health services in German-speaking countries?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

F. Schultze-Lutter ,
C. Michel ,
B. Schimmelmann ,
E. Meisenzahl  and
N. Osman
F. Schultze-Lutter*
Affiliation:
Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Department Of Psychiatry And Psychotherapy, Düsseldorf, Germany
C. Michel
Affiliation:
University of Bern, University Hospital Of Child And Adolescent Psychiatry And Psychotherapy, Bern, Switzerland
B. Schimmelmann
Affiliation:
University of Bern, University Hospital Of Child And Adolescent Psychiatry And Psychotherapy, Bern, Switzerland
E. Meisenzahl
Affiliation:
LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Department Of Psychiatrie, Düsseldorf, Germany
N. Osman
Affiliation:
Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Department Of Psychiatry And Psychotherapy, Düsseldorf, Germany
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

The Kessler Psychological Distress Scales (K10 and K6) are used as screening tools to assess psychological distress and are the first-line assessment of need for help in the Headspace services.

Objectives

Thus, we studied the psychometric properties of their German versions in a Swiss community sample to evaluate their potential usefulness to screen for mental disorders or relevant mental problems in low threshold transdiagnostic German-speaking services.

Methods

The sample consisted of 829 citizens of the Swiss canton Bern of age 19-43 years. K10/K6 were validated against Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) diagnoses, questionnaires about health status and quality of life. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were used to test for general discriminative ability and to select optimal cut-offs of the K10 and K6 for non-psychotic full-blown and subthreshold mental disorders.

Results

Cronbach’s alphas were 0.81 (K10) and 0.70 (K6). ROC analyses indicated much lower optimal thresholds than earlier suggested; 10 for K10 and 6 for K6. At these thresholds, against M.I.N.I. diagnoses, Cohen’s Kappa (<=0.173) and correspondence rates (<=58.14%) were insufficient throughout. Values were higher at the earlier suggested threshold, yet, at the cost of sensitivity that was below 0.5 in all but three, and below 0.3 in all but six cases.

Conclusions

For the lack of sufficient validity and sensitivity, respectively, our findings suggest that both K10 and K6 would only be of limited use in a low-threshold transdiagnostic mental health service – comparable to Headspace – for young adults in Switzerland and likely other German-speaking countries.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

screeninggeneral populationconcurrent validityMental Disorders
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S352
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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