Objective: The Demand for inclusion of mental health measures in general health and well- being community-based surveys in developing countries is increasing. In a previous survey of child well-being in Vietnam, a measure of maternal mental health was included. This was the first use of the Self- reporting Questionnaire 20 items in Vietnam, and tested the validity and reliability. The objective of this study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the Self- reporting Questionnaire 20 items in Vietnam, to identify a cut-off point to determine cases, and to assess the inter-rater reliability.

Patients and Methods: Double-blind assessment was conducted for 66 rural women, half of whom had been identified as patients with mental ill health by the Self- reporting Questionnaire 20 items in a community-based survey in 2002 and half were controls. In-depth Vietnamese psychiatric appraisal and the Self- reporting Questionnaire 20 items were used for all the women. Repeat interviews were performed with the Self- reporting Questionnaire 20 items by 3 different interviews within 24 hours. 

Results: Using a cut off of 7/8, sensitivity was 73% and specificity was 82%. Inter-rater reliability combined  k was 0.79.

Conclusions: This study validated the first reliable, cheap, and easy-to-use, community-based measure of mental health for Vietnam.

Keywords: Data collection, Reproducibility of Results, Vietnam

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