Development and validation of a mental health screening tool for asylum-seekers and refugees: the STAR-MH.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:There is no screening tool for major depressive disorder (MDD) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in asylum-seekers or refugees (ASR) that can be readily administered by non-mental health workers. Hence, we aimed to develop a brief, sensitive and rapidly administrable tool for non-mental health workers to screen for MDD and PTSD in ASR. METHODS:The screening tool was developed from an extant dataset (n = 121) of multiply screened ASR and tested prospectively (N = 192) against the M.I.N.I. (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview) structured psychiatric interview. Rasch, Differential Item Functioning and ROC analyses evaluated the psychometric properties and tool utility. RESULTS:A 9-item tool with a median administration time of six minutes was generated, comprising

SUBMITTER: Hocking DC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5857116 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature