THE SENSITIVITY, SPECIFICITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE MALAY VERSION 12-ITEMS GENERAL HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE (GHQ-12) IN DETECTING DISTRESSED MEDICAL STUDENTS

Objective: to determine the sensitivity, specificity and internal consistency of the malay version ghq-12 among medical student population. this study determined the appropriate ghq-12 score to detect distressed medical students. methods: the malay version of ghq-12 was derived based on two sources which were the original version ghq-12 and the validated malay version 30-items ghq. the ghq-12 and the malay version beck depression inventory-ii (bdi-ii) were administered to a total of 141 medical students. distress diagnoses were made based on the malay version bdi-ii. roc curve analysis was applied to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the ghq-12 by testing against the bdi-ii. reliability analysis (cronbach’s alpha and item total correlation) was applied to test internal consistency of the ghq-12. the analysis was done using spss version 12.results: the ghq-12 sensitivity and specificity at cut-off point of 3/4 was 81.3% and 75.3% respectively with positive predictive value (ppv) of 62.9% as well as area under roc curve more than 0.7. the cronbach’s alpha value of the ghq-12 was 0.85.conclusion: this study showed the malay version ghq-12 is a valid and reliable screening tool in detecting distressed medical students. the ghq-12 score equal to or more than 4 was considered as significant distress