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Norms for Zung's Self-rating Anxiety Scale
1School of Psychology University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia. ddunstan@une.edu.au.
BMC Psychiatry
|March 1, 2020
Summary
The Zung Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) cutoff may need adjustment. Research suggests a raw score cutoff of 40 is best for research, while 36 is suitable for clinical screening of anxiety disorders.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Psychometrics
- Mental Health Research
Background:
- Zung's Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) is a widely used screener for anxiety disorders.
- Recent studies question the ideal cutoff score for identifying anxiety disorders using the SAS.
Purpose of the Study:
- To re-evaluate the optimal cutoff score for Zung's Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS).
- To compare SAS performance against the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) diagnostic criteria.
Main Methods:
- Examined sensitivity and specificity of the SAS using PHQ diagnoses.
- Utilized clinical (n=141) and community (n=210) samples representative of the Australian adult population.
- Applied mathematical formulas like Youden's Index and ROC curves.
Main Results:
- Analysis indicated an ideal SAS cutoff point between the current and original recommended scores.
- The study identified optimal cutoff scores based on statistical analysis of diagnostic accuracy.
Conclusions:
- A raw score cutoff of 40 is recommended for research applications of the SAS.
- A cutoff of 36 may be appropriate for clinical screening of anxiety disorders, balancing false negatives and positives.
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