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[Evaluation of Suicide Risk Levels in Hospitals: Validity and Reliability Tests]
Sandro Macagnino1, Tilman Steinert1, Carmen Uhlmann1
1ZfP Südwürttemberg "Die Weissenau", Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie I der Universität Ulm, Ravensburg.
Objective:
Examination of in-hospital suicide risk levels concerning their validity and their reliability.
Method:
The internal suicide risk levels were evaluated in a cross sectional study of in 163 inpatients. A reliability check was performed via determining interrater-reliability of senior physician, therapist and the responsible nurse. Within the scope of the validity check, we conducted analyses of criterion validity and construct validity.
Results:
For the total sample an "acceptable" to "good" interrater-reliability (Kendalls W = .77) of suicide risk levels were obtained. Schizophrenic disorders showed the lowest values, for personality disorders we found the highest level of interrater-reliability. When examining the criterion validity, Item-9 of the BDI-II is substantial correlated to our suicide risk levels (ρm = .54, p < .01). Within the scope of construct validity check, affective disorders showed the highest correlation (ρ = .77), compatible also with "convergent validity". They differed with schizophrenic disorders which showed the least concordance (ρ = .43).
Conclusion:
In-hospital suicide risk levels may represent an important contribution to the assessment of suicidal behavior of inpatients experiencing psychiatric treatment due to their overall good validity and reliability.
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