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Validity of the Japanese version of the GHQ among antenatal clinic attendants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

T. Kitamura*
Affiliation:
Section of Mental Health for the Elderly, National Institute of Mental Health; Department of Psychology, Tokyo Metropolitan University; and Department of Psychiatry, Kawasaki Municipal Hospital, Japan
M. Sugawara
Affiliation:
Section of Mental Health for the Elderly, National Institute of Mental Health; Department of Psychology, Tokyo Metropolitan University; and Department of Psychiatry, Kawasaki Municipal Hospital, Japan
M. Aoki
Affiliation:
Section of Mental Health for the Elderly, National Institute of Mental Health; Department of Psychology, Tokyo Metropolitan University; and Department of Psychiatry, Kawasaki Municipal Hospital, Japan
S. Shima
Affiliation:
Section of Mental Health for the Elderly, National Institute of Mental Health; Department of Psychology, Tokyo Metropolitan University; and Department of Psychiatry, Kawasaki Municipal Hospital, Japan
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr T. Kitamura, NIMH, 1–7–3 Konodai, Ichikawa, Chiba 272, Japan.

Synopsis

The validity of the Japanese version of the 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was examined against the semi-structured interview-based Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) as external criteria. The GHQ total score discriminated ‘cases’ and ‘non-cases’ satisfactorily but its recommended cut-off point was higher (7/8) than that of the original English version (4/5). Discriminant function analysis revealed that only 13 items contributed to the discriminatory power and that their discriminant function score was better than a simple summation of the 30 GHQ item scores in terms of validity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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