Abstract
The BSI-18, a short version of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Franke, 2000), was first published in the year 2000 (Derogatis). It consists of the three six-item-scales Somatization (in which one item of the full version was eliminated), Depression, and Anxiety of the BSI, and a global score including all 18 items.
409 kidney-transplanted patients of the University Hospital, Essen were routinely assessed by a tool of questionnaires assessing health-related quality of life and psychosocial aspects (SF-36, BSI, F-Sozu-K22). 246 (60.1%) of the patients were male and 163 female (39.9%), mean age was 49.7 years (standard deviation=12.5, range 20–76). Kidney transplantation dated back on average 81 months (SD=56, range 1–330); 354 patients (67%) were transplanted once, 41 (10%) twice, 11 (3%) thrice and four (1%) more than thrice.
The psychometric investigations analyzed reliability and validity of the BSI-18.
Analyses of reliability revealed only a small loss of internal consistency. BSI-18 is a useful short screening tool measuring routinely salient psychological distress in kidney-transplanted patients.
Early detection of salient psychological distress can support provision of adequate medical-psychological intervention; this may enhance health-related quality of life in medium term, and may help reducing financial costs in the health-care system.
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