Psychiatry Investig.  2016 Jul;13(4):406-412. 10.4306/pi.2016.13.4.406.

Application of Short Screening Tools for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the Korean Elderly Population

• Jang YJ
• Kang SH
• Chung HG
• Choi JH
• Kim TY
• So HS

• KMID: 2344738
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4306/pi.2016.13.4.406

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often missed or incorrectly diagnosed in primary care settings. Although brief screening instruments may be useful in detecting PTSD, an adequate validation study has not been conducted with older adults. This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the primary care PTSD screen (PC-PTSD) and single-item PTSD screener (SIPS) in elderly veterans.
METHODS
The PC-PTSD and SIPS assessments were translated into Korean, with a back-translation to the original language to verify accuracy. Vietnamese war veterans [separated into a PTSD group (n=41) and a non-PTSD group (n=99)] participated in several psychometric assessments, including the Korean versions of the PC-PTSD (PC-PTSD-K), SIPS (SIPS-K), a structured clinical interview from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV(SCID), and PTSD checklist(PCL).
RESULTS
The PC-PTSD-K showed high internal consistency (Cronbach α=0.76), and the test-retest reliability of the PC-PTSD-K and SIPS-K were also high (r=0.97 and r=0.91, respectively). A total score of 3 from the PC-PTSD-K yielded the highest diagnostic efficiency, with sensitivity and specificity values of 0.90 and 0.86, respectively. The 'bothered a lot' response level from the SIPS-K showed the highest diagnostic efficiency, with sensitivity and specificity values of 0.85 and 0.89, respectively.
CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that both PC-PTSD-K and SIPS-K have good psychometric properties with high validity and reliability for detecting PTSD symptoms in elderly Korean veterans. However, further research will be necessary to increase our understanding of PTSD characteristics in diverse groups with different types of trauma.

Keyword

Post-traumatic stress disorder; Primary care PTSD screen; Single-item PTSD screener; Validity; Reliability

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aged*
Asian Continental Ancestry Group
Humans
Mass Screening*
Primary Health Care
Psychometrics
Reproducibility of Results
Sensitivity and Specificity
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic*
Veterans