Psychometric properties of an African symptoms check list scale: the Ndetei-Othieno-Kathuku scale

To profile and quantify the psychometric properties of the NOK (Ndetei-Othieno-Kathuku) scale against internationally used Gold-standards and benchmarks for mild psychiatric disorders and post-traumatic stress disorders and to provide a potential easy to administer culture sensitive instrument for screening and assessing those with possible psychiatric disorders for the Kenyan and similar social-cultural situations.

Cross-Sectional quantitative study.

A psychiatric clinical consultation setting and Kyanguli Secondary School psychotrauma counselling clinical set-up.

Survivors of the Nairobi USA Embassy bombing who were referred for psychiatric treatment and survivors of a fire disaster from a rural Kenyan school (Kyanguli School fire disaster) including students, parents of the diseased children and staff members.

Positive correlation was found between the NOK and all the instruments. The highest correlations were between the NOK and the BDI and SCL-90 (r = 0.557 to 0.786). The differences between the NOK scores among the different groups were statistically significant (F ratio = 13.54 to 160.34, p < 0.01). The reliability coefficient (internal consistency) of the scale, alpha = 0.9733. Other item statistics and correlations of the scale are discussed.

It is concluded that the NOK has high concurrent and discriminant validity as well as a high internal consistency and that it can be used for the rapid assessment of psychotrauma victims of all age groups; and stress in general in similar age groups in the local setting. It is culture appropriate and sensitive.