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Validation of the Refugee Health Screener-15 for the assessment of perinatal depression among Karen and Burmese women on the Thai-Myanmar border

Validation of the Refugee Health Screener-15 for the assessment of perinatal depression among Karen and Burmese women on the Thai-Myanmar border
Validation of the Refugee Health Screener-15 for the assessment of perinatal depression among Karen and Burmese women on the Thai-Myanmar border

Perinatal depression is common, and left untreated can have significant and long-lasting consequences for women, their children and their families. Migrant women are at particular risk of perinatal depression as a result of a multitude of stressors experienced before, during and after migration. Identification of perinatal depression among migrant women-particularly those living in low- and middle-income regions-remains challenging, partly due to the lack of locally-validated and culturally appropriate screens tools. This study formally validates Burmese and Sgaw Karen versions of the Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15) as a screening tool for perinatal depression among migrant women living on the Thai-Myanmar border. The Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnosis of DSM-IV Disorders (SCID) was used as the gold-standard comparator. Complete results were obtained for 235 Burmese-speaking and 275 Sgaw Karen-speaking women. Despite displaying reasonable psychometric properties, a number of shortcomings associated with the RHS-15 limited its utility in this setting. The Likert-type response categories of the RHS-15 proved problematic in this low-literacy population. Combined with the relative superiority and greater ease of administration of the SCID, the RHS-15 is not recommended as the tool of choice for detecting perinatal depression in this setting.

Adolescent, Adult, Depression/diagnosis, Female, Geography, Humans, Middle Aged, Myanmar/epidemiology, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Complications/diagnosis, Psychometrics/methods, ROC Curve, Refugees, Surveys and Questionnaires, Thailand/epidemiology, Transients and Migrants, Young Adult
1932-6203
Fellmeth, Gracia
691f80d3-fb29-4219-86ed-848b117e6f09
Plugge, Emma
b64d2086-6cf2-4fae-98bf-6aafa3115b35
Fazel, Mina
24c4df8f-d9e0-4d84-9353-cee4adafe55e
Charunwattana, Prakaykaew
b9635c0b-b46a-4621-8d90-b145c5bb36e7
Nosten, François
4a9e868e-9b19-49a0-89f8-891ad84886e4
Fitzpatrick, Raymond
bea5c739-8a31-41ad-995b-c91919bb4211
Simpson, Julie A.
3e978f4f-08c6-4c29-82cf-9904ac9e5e55
McGready, Rose
901b40d0-a81c-4d92-bebf-7573eb8df859
Fellmeth, Gracia
691f80d3-fb29-4219-86ed-848b117e6f09
Plugge, Emma
b64d2086-6cf2-4fae-98bf-6aafa3115b35
Fazel, Mina
24c4df8f-d9e0-4d84-9353-cee4adafe55e
Charunwattana, Prakaykaew
b9635c0b-b46a-4621-8d90-b145c5bb36e7
Nosten, François
4a9e868e-9b19-49a0-89f8-891ad84886e4
Fitzpatrick, Raymond
bea5c739-8a31-41ad-995b-c91919bb4211
Simpson, Julie A.
3e978f4f-08c6-4c29-82cf-9904ac9e5e55
McGready, Rose
901b40d0-a81c-4d92-bebf-7573eb8df859

Fellmeth, Gracia, Plugge, Emma, Fazel, Mina, Charunwattana, Prakaykaew, Nosten, François, Fitzpatrick, Raymond, Simpson, Julie A. and McGready, Rose (2018) Validation of the Refugee Health Screener-15 for the assessment of perinatal depression among Karen and Burmese women on the Thai-Myanmar border. PLoS ONE, 13 (5), [e0197403]. (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0197403).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Perinatal depression is common, and left untreated can have significant and long-lasting consequences for women, their children and their families. Migrant women are at particular risk of perinatal depression as a result of a multitude of stressors experienced before, during and after migration. Identification of perinatal depression among migrant women-particularly those living in low- and middle-income regions-remains challenging, partly due to the lack of locally-validated and culturally appropriate screens tools. This study formally validates Burmese and Sgaw Karen versions of the Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15) as a screening tool for perinatal depression among migrant women living on the Thai-Myanmar border. The Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnosis of DSM-IV Disorders (SCID) was used as the gold-standard comparator. Complete results were obtained for 235 Burmese-speaking and 275 Sgaw Karen-speaking women. Despite displaying reasonable psychometric properties, a number of shortcomings associated with the RHS-15 limited its utility in this setting. The Likert-type response categories of the RHS-15 proved problematic in this low-literacy population. Combined with the relative superiority and greater ease of administration of the SCID, the RHS-15 is not recommended as the tool of choice for detecting perinatal depression in this setting.

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e-pub ahead of print date: 21 May 2018
Keywords: Adolescent, Adult, Depression/diagnosis, Female, Geography, Humans, Middle Aged, Myanmar/epidemiology, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Complications/diagnosis, Psychometrics/methods, ROC Curve, Refugees, Surveys and Questionnaires, Thailand/epidemiology, Transients and Migrants, Young Adult

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 485261
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/485261
ISSN: 1932-6203
PURE UUID: a1e7bc2f-bdca-49c6-b724-799611d5cbe0
ORCID for Emma Plugge: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8359-0071

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Date deposited: 01 Dec 2023 17:50
Last modified: 12 Jul 2024 02:06

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Contributors

Author: Gracia Fellmeth
Author: Emma Plugge ORCID iD
Author: Mina Fazel
Author: Prakaykaew Charunwattana
Author: François Nosten
Author: Raymond Fitzpatrick
Author: Julie A. Simpson
Author: Rose McGready

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