Patterns of psychopathological manifestations among ethnic Chinese living in Brazil

Common mental disorders (CMD) are critical issues in community studies. The 12-item version Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ-12) has not been sufficiently explored for use in Chinese communities around the world. This paper evaluates CMD among ethnic Chinese living in Brazil, by examining its psychometric properties and factorial structure of CHQ-12.

For 211 community subjects who completed the CHQ-12, we used the ROC curve analysis to calculate its internal consistency and criterion validity, adopting the interview SCAN as criterion. Principal component analysis was performed.

Considerable evidence was found for the internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and item-total correlation of CHQ-12. The best cut-off point was 2/3,which allowed calculating criterion validity: 75%, sensitivity, 71% specificity, 55% PPV, 86% NPV, 28% misclassification rate and area under the ROC curve 0.728 (SE: 0.102, 95% CI: 0.528-0.927). The 3-dimensional structure of CHQ-12 could be described as somatic, depressive and worrying factor, accounting for 47.8% of the total variance.

When applied to the Brazilian Chinese community, the CHQ-12 presented comparable psychopathologic pattern, psychometric properties and factorial structure to that of Taiwan.