[A validation study of the Personal Health Scale in Argentina and Venezuela]

International reports have shown that the majority of patients with a psychiatric disorder are most often seen in non-psychiatric services and are not effectively diagnosed. The objectives of this study, conducted in Argentina and Venezuela, was to validate the Personal Health Scale (PHS), a 10-item instrument developed for the detection of possible cases of mental disorders.

A total of 227 subjects were recruited in both countries. The PHS's ease of use and the time required for completion was rated. Its internal structure (calculating the Cronbach's alpha) and factorial structures was analyzed. Mean total scores of psychiatric patients (n=127) and control subjects without psychiatric illness (n=100) were compared to determine its discriminant validity.

Mean time for completion was less than 3 minutes and the majority of subjects judged it as easy to use. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.77 in both countries and the factorial analysis (extraction limited to one factor)showed that 8 (Venezuela) or 9 (Argentina) of the 10 items were represented in that factor; the variance explained by that factor was of 34%. A significant statistical difference (p<0.05) was found for the mean total scores between the psychiatric patients and controls. The best cut-off score to discriminate between groups was 6/7.

The results suggest that the PHS is efficient, easy to use, has a high internal consistency, adequate factorial structure and ability to discriminate between samples of psychiatric patients and controls.We propose its use in primary care settings, clinical and epidemiological in Latin American countries.