Validation of the Italian version of the Screening Questionnaire for Disaster Mental Health (SQD) in a post-earthquake urban environment

• Main Authors: Marco Valenti, Senta Fujii, Hiroshi Kato, Francesco Masedu, Sergio Tiberti, Vittorio Sconci
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Istituto Superiore di Sanità 2013-03-01
• Series: Annali dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità
• Subjects: post-disaster; post-traumatic stress disorder; depression; Screening Questionnaire for Disaster Mental Health; validation
• Online Access: http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0021-25712013000100013&lng=en&tlng=en

INTRODUCTION. Aim of this study was to implement and validate the Italian version of the Screening Questionnaire for Disaster Mental Health (SQD), a tool for the screening of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression in the long-term aftermaths of a natural disaster. METHODS. A convenience sample of 116 subjects living in L'Aquila after the 2009 earthquake were administered the SQD and two gold-standard instruments for PTSD and depression. Reliability, concurrent validity and convergent validity of SQD were estimated. RESULTS. Cronbach's alpha was 0.86. Concurrent validity as measured by the Spearman correlation coefficient resulted statistically significant both for PTSD and depression SQD subscales, as well as convergent validity as measured by ROC-AUC method. CONCLUSIONS. SQD is a valid, efficient and easy-to-use screening instrument for PTSD and depression after natural disasters.