Reliability and validity of a brief self-rated scale of health condition with acute schizophrenia

Aim: The aim of this study was to develop a new Brief Scale of Self-rated Health Condition with Acute Schizophrenia (BsHAS) and to examine its reliability, validity and correlation to psychiatric symptoms.

Methods: We examined the reliability and validity of the BsHAS consisting of four items (physical health condition, mood, interpersonal fatigue and interest) for 199 inpatients with acute schizophrenia and compared the patients' subjective health conditions as assessed by the BsHAS with their objective psychiatric symptoms.

Results: Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.79, indicating that the reliability of the scale was sufficient. These four items chosen from the previous studies were approved by an expert panel, which suggested that the scale has content validity. The BsHAS total score was significantly improved at discharge. However, the effect size was only -0.24. In particular, improvement was not recognized in the interpersonal fatigue item. These findings suggest that some patients weredischarged without realizing the improvement of their health condition. The patients answered all questions without subsequently showing deteriorating symptoms, suggesting that the scale can be applied to acute-phase patients with schizophrenia. No obvious relation was recognized between the patients' subjective health condition as assessed by the BsHAS and their objective psychiatric symptoms. This result suggests that the BsHAS can provide additional information to the objective assessment of psychiatric symptoms.

Conclusion: These results show that the BsHAS can help psychiatric professionals to know patients' subjective health conditions, and that the longitudinal use of this scale may be useful for evaluating the degree of recovery from schizophrenia.