Table 3 Brief overview of the self-rated health measurement tools identified in the scoping review
Measurement focus | Measurement tool | Design/use & composition | Publically available | Reliability testing in refugee research | Validity testing in refugee research |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
General Health | Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (MOS-SF) | Designed for use in clinical practice/research/general pop’n surveys to measure perceived mental/physical health status in past month. Several versions with 6, 12, 20 or 36 items. | Yes | Yes, versions SF-6, SF-12, SF-20 & SF-36 | Yes, version SF-12 |
General Health | New Mexico Refugee Symptom Checklist-121 (NMRSC-121) | Designed for use within non-clinical refugee research for assessment of distressing physical/emotional symptoms in past year (121 items). | No | Yes | Yes |
General Health | Personal Wellbeing Index (PWI) | Designed to measure quality of life across cultures in general pop’n (8 items). | Yes | Yes | No |
General Health | WHO Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) | Designed for use in research/clinical settings to assess self-rated quality of life across different cultures in past 2 weeks (26 items). | No | Yes | Yes |
General Health | WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHO-DASS) | Designed for use within clinical/community pop’ns to measure quality of life (36 items). | No | Yes | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Afghan Symptom Checklist (ASCL) | Designed to measure psychological distress within non-clinical samples of Afghanis in past 2 weeks (23 items). | No | Yes | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Augmented Anxiety Sensitivity Index (AASI) | Designed to measure culturally specific fears within Cambodian refugee outpatients (16 items). | No | Yes | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) | Designed to measure anxiety in adults & adolescents in clinical/research settings (21 items) | Yes | No | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) | Designed to detect/assess/monitor changes in depressive symptoms in clinical settings (21 items). | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Common Mental Disorders | Centre for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) | Designed to measure level of depressive symptoms in a general population in past week (20 items) | Yes | Yes | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Depression, Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) | Designed to measure symptoms of depression/anxiety/stress in community settings in past week (20 items). | Yes | Yes | No |
Common Mental Disorders | General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) | Designed for identifying psychiatric illness in Western patients. Several versions with 12, 28, 30 or 60 items. | No | Yes | No |
Common Mental Disorders | General Perceived Self-Efficiacy Scale (GPSE) | Designed to assess self-efficacy within Western non-clinical & clinical populations (10 items). | No | Yes | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) | Originally designed for use in Western clinical settings. Indochinese version developed to screen anxiety & depression in clinical refugee samples (25 items). | No | Yes | Yes |
Common Mental Disorders | Hospital Anxiety & Depression Scale (HADS) | Designed for use in Western clinical & research settings to measure anxiety & depression (14 items). | No | No | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness (ISMI) | Designed to measure internalized stigma within Western clinical samples (29 items) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Common Mental Disorders | Kessler Psychological Scale (KPS) | Developed to screen for distress & mental illness in Western populations in past 4 weeks. Has been adopted in Western & non-Western countries as screening & outcome measure in primary care and mental health settings. Several versions with 6 or 10 items. | Yes | Yes | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Mental Health Inventory (MHI) | Designed for use in general Western pop’ns to detect mental health disorders (38 items). | Yes | Yes | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) | Designed to measure depression & severity in Western clinical samples (9 items) | No | No | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15) | Designed to screen distress, anxiety & depression in clinical samples of refugees (15 items). | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Common Mental Disorders | Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) | Designed as psychiatric screening instrument for use in primary health care/community settings in low/middle income countries. Several versions with 5 or 20 items. | Yes | No | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Sheenan Disability Inventory (SDI) | Designed to assess functional impairment associated with anxiety disorder diagnosis in Western clinical samples (3 items) | Yes | No | No |
Common Mental Disorders | Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) | Designed as mental health screening tool for Western clinical samples (90 items; 10 subscales asking about mental health symptoms in past week). | No | No | Yes |
Common Mental Disorders | Vietnamese Depression Scale (VDS) | Designed to measure depression among clinical samples of refugees (15 items) | No | Yes | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Annihilation Anxiety Scale (AAS) | Designed for use in clinical settings & in research with severely traumatized populations (eg refugees). (3 items) | No | Yes | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Cambodian Somatic Symptom & Syndrome Inventory (CSSI) | Designed for use in clinical samples of Cambodian refugees to assess somatic symptoms & cultural syndromes in past week (23 items). Very specific to Cambodians. | No | Yes | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Comprehensive Trauma Inventory-104 (CTI-104) | Designed for use within community samples of refugees to assess traumatic events (104 items). | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Cumulative Trauma Disorder Scale (CTDS) | Designed for use within clinical & non-clinical samples of refugees to measure trauma symptoms in past month (15 items) | No | Yes | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) | Designed to measure dissociation in general & clinic Western populations (28 items). | Yes | Yes | No |
Trauma/PTSD | HADStress | Designed to measure somatic symptoms within community sample of refugees (4 items). | No | No | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) | Designed for clinical samples of refugees to measure trauma. Must be modified and adapted to the characteristics of each cultural group. 4 parts. Part 1 measures trauma. Part 2 asks for description of most traumatic experience/event experienced during the refugee experience. Part 3 assesses likelihood of head injury. Part 4 measures trauma symptoms. | No | Yes | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Health Leaflet | Designed to measure PTSD within community samples of refugees (15 items). | No | No | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R) | Designed to measure current subjective distress related to a specific event among Western clinic samples (15 items). | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) | Designed to assess personality traits & psychopathology among Western clinic samples (567 items). | Yes | No | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Post Migration Living Difficulties Scale (PMLD) | Designed to assess current life stressors of asylum-seekers (23 items). | No | No | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Post Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) | Designed to assess positive outcomes among traumatized non clinic Western pop’ns (21 items). | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS) | Designed to measure self-report measure of PTSD in clinical/research settings. 4 parts. Part 1 is checklist of traumatic events experienced/witnessed by respondent. Part 2: asks respondents to indicate which event has disturbed them the most in past month. Part 3 asks for PTSD symptoms items experienced in past month. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Interview for Vietnamese Refugees (PTSD-IVR) | Designed to assess trauma among clinic samples of Vietnamese refugees (30 items) | No | Yes | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Posttraumatic Symptom Disorder Checklist-90 (PCL-90) | Designed to measure PTSD among non-clinical samples in past month (17 items) | Yes | No | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Posttraumatic Symptom Scale (PTSS) | Designed to measure PTSD symptoms in past week within trauma affected samples (10 or 16 items) | Yes | Yes | No |
Trauma/PTSD | Primary Care Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Screen (PC-PTSD) | Designed for use in primary care/other medical settings to assess dimensions of PTSD (5 items). | Yes | No | No |
Trauma/PTSD | Resettlement Stressor Scale (RSS) | Designed within a community sample of Cambodian refugee adolescents to assess trauma events in migration/present settlement (32 items). | Yes | No | Yes |
Trauma/PTSD | Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ) | Designed in general clinic western population for use in research/primary care/emergency rooms to assess potentially traumatic events (23 items). | No | No | No |
Trauma/PTSD | War Trauma Scale (WTS) | Designed within clinical samples of Cambodian adolescent refugees that had lived through the Pol Pot regime. Items are all worded in relation to Pol Pot era. (42 items). | No | Yes | Yes |