Recorded presentation

B. Kathleen Jordan, PhD, Kathryn R. Batts, MPE, and Rhonda S. Karg, PhD. Mental and Behavioral Health, Research Triangle Institute, P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, 919-541-6000, rourke@rti.org

Epidemiologists and mental health researchers depend heavily on survey assessments of psychiatric disorders to increase their understanding of the epidemiology, etiology, and course of psychiatric disorders. The use of valid, standardized instruments not only ensures accurate assessment.of these disorders but also permits comparisons of findings across studies and samples. There has been relatively limited work done to demonstrate or improve upon the validity of many currently used measures however. Investigators who employ survey instruments typically require assessments that are as brief and straightforward as possible. Developing diagnostic instruments that achieve these goals is often difficult because the assessment of psychiatric disorders involves complex constructs and/or clustering of symptoms. Frequently, specificity and/or sensitivity suffer in order to achieve brevity and simplicity. Three techniques that have been used to improve the validity of survey assessments.are 1) cognitive interviewing, 2) instrument review by experts in the disorders assessed and 3) review by survey methodologists. To demonstrate the validity of survey assessments, clinical validation studies using structured clinical interview or multi-source diagnoses as the gold standard are often employed. The authors propose a set of procedures for improving survey assessments that were developed to evaluate and revise the substance abuse and dependence module of the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). The procedures include the techniques just described, as well as a new technique called discordance analysis.

Learning Objectives:

• 1.Learn a set of techniques that can be employed to improve survey assessments of psychiatric disorders
• 2 Acquire skills in evaluating survey assessments of psychiatric disorders

Keywords: Assessments, Psychiatric Epidemiology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation