1. A Pragmatic Approach to Psychometric Comparisons between the DSM-IV and DSM-5 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklists in Acutely Injured Trauma Patients
- Author
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Sara Seo, Kathleen Moloney, Natalie Vaziri, Michele Bedard-Gilligan, Joan Russo, Rddhi Moodliar, Peyton Johnson, and Douglas F. Zatzick
- Subjects
Adult ,Male ,Psychometrics ,MEDLINE ,behavioral disciplines and activities ,Article ,DSM-5 ,Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Cronbach's alpha ,Internal consistency ,mental disorders ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Posttraumatic stress disorders ,Reproducibility of Results ,Middle Aged ,Checklist ,Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ,Clinical trial ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Posttraumatic stress ,Wounds and Injuries ,Female ,Psychology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Objective Prior investigations suggest the relative equivalence of the DSM-IV and DSM-5 versions of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) Checklist, yet no investigations have assessed the psychometric properties of the scales in pragmatic trials of acutely injured trauma survivors. Method DSM-IV and DSM-5 versions of the PTSD Checklist were included in follow-up interviews of physically injured patients enrolled longitudinally in a pragmatic clinical trial; pragmatic trials aim to efficiently implement research procedures to inform healthcare system policy changes. Psychometric comparisons of the DSM-IV, DSM-5, and a 20-item blended version of the scale included evaluations of internal consistency, correlational assessments, evaluation of item level agreements, and estimation of DSM-5 cutoffs that optimize electronic health record screening protocols. Results 128 patients were included in the pragmatic psychometric study. Cronbach's alphas for the 3 versions of the PTSD Checklist ranged from 0.93 to 0.95. Correlations between the 3 scales ranged from 0.79 to 0.99. All 3 measures demonstrated excellent convergent and discriminant properties. Item level agreement ranged from 70-80%. For the DSM-5 and blended versions of the scale, a score of 30 and 24, respectively, best approximated the DSM-IV cutoff of ≥35 that had previously optimized PTSD detection in conjunction with EHR screening. Conclusions Among injured trauma survivors, the psychometric performance of the DSM-IV PTSD Checklist with the addition of the 4 new DSM-5 PTSD Checklist items is nearly equivalent to the DSM-5 PTSD Checklist. The investigation also suggests that pragmatic psychometric methods can catalyze the rapid translation of research findings into real-world practice settings.
- Published
- 2020