The Chinese version of the Davidson Trauma Scale : A practice test for validation

• Published in: Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences Vol. 55; no. 5; pp. 493 - 499
• Main Authors: Chen, Chin‐Hung, Lin, Shih‐Ku, Tang, Hwa‐Sheng, Shen, Winston W., Lu, Mong‐Liang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melbourne, Australia Blackwell Science Pty 01.10.2001; Blackwell Publishing
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Cross-Cultural Comparison; Davidson Trauma Scale; Disasters; earthquake; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; post-traumatic stress disorder; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; rating scale; Reproducibility of Results; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - ethnology; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology; Survivors - psychology; Taiwan; Techniques and methods; Asia; Taiwan; Human; Test validation; Foreign language version; Posttraumatic syndrome; Evaluation scale; Earthquakes; Anxiety disorder; Chinese; Psychometrics; Disaster; Test reliability; Stress
• ISSN: 1323-1316; 1440-1819
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1440-1819.2001.00895.x

The Chinese version of the Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS‐C) was developed to respond to the need of Chinese‐speaking individuals. The DTS is a validated self‐rating scale used in the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The DTS‐C is translated from DTS through a two‐stage translation. Subjects were drawn from a sample of 210 survivors of the 21 September 1999, Chi‐Chi Earthquake. The scale showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.97) and test–retest reliability (r = 0.88). Concurrent validity was obtained against the clinical diagnostic interview, with a diagnostic accuracy of 0.85 at DTS‐C score of 44. It showed that the sensitivity was 0.9, specificity 0.81, positive likelihood ratio 4.74, and negative likelihood ratio 0.12. The recommended stratum‐specific likelihood ratios were 0.10 (95% CI: 0.05–0.20) for the score range 0–39, 4 (2.22–7.23) for the score range of 40–59, and 6.14 (3.42–11.02) for the scores above 60. In PTSD diagnosed subjects, the factor structures closely resembled the DSM‐IV grouping of PTSD symptoms. The psychometric strength of DTS‐C is reliable for its future use, particularly for screening for subjects with possible diagnosis of PTSD.