Validation of an Italian translation of the 30-item General Health Questionnaire for use in Australia

A validity study of an Italian translation of the GHQ-30 was conducted on a sample of 96 Italian-born subjects in the community in Perth, Western Australia, using the shortened version of the Present State Examination as the gold standard for a "case" of non-psychotic psychiatric morbidity. The 96 subjects were a subsample of a study of 1109 subjects seen in a community survey, in which 45.8% had a score above 4 on the GHQ-30. It was found that 5/6 was the most appropriate cut-off point. At this level the sensitivity was 81.2%, the specificity 79.7%, the positive predictive value 66.7%, the negative predictive value 89.5% and the overall misclassification rate 19.8%. Adjusting the results to truly reflect the lower case-prevalence rate in the community, using a method suggested by Goldberg, the corresponding values were 57.7%, 92.6%, 66.7%, 89.5% and 14.6%. It was concluded that this version of the GHQ-30 is suitable for use in the Italian-born, in the community and in general practice in Australia, using a cut-off point of 5/6.