Citation

Ndetei DM, Othieno CJ, Mutiso VN, Ongecha FA, Kokonya DA, Omar A, Gakinya B, Mwangi J. East Afr. Med. J. 2006; 83(5): 280-287.

Affiliation

University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Nairobi Medical Association of East Africa)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16866223

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To profile and quantify the psychometric properties of the NOK (Ndetei-Othieno-Kathuku) scale against internationally used Gold-standards and benchmarks for mild psychiatric disorders and post-traumatic stress disorders and to provide a potential easy to administer culture sensitive instrument for screening and assessing those with possible psychiatric disorders for the Kenyan and similar social-cultural situations. DESIGN: Cross-Sectional quantitative study. SETTING: A psychiatric clinical consultation setting and Kyanguli Secondary School psychotrauma counselling clinical set-up. SUBJECTS: Survivors of the Nairobi USA Embassy bombing who were referred for psychiatric treatment and survivors of a fire disaster from a rural Kenyan school (Kyanguli School fire disaster) including students, parents of the diseased children and staff members. RESULTS: Positive correlation was found between the NOK and all the instruments. The highest correlations were between the NOK and the BDI and SCL-90 (r = 0.557 to 0.786). The differences between the NOK scores among the different groups were statistically significant (F ratio = 13.54 to 160.34, p < 0.01). The reliability coefficient (internal consistency) of the scale, alpha = 0.9733. Other item statistics and correlations of the scale are discussed. CONCLUSION: It is concluded that the NOK has high concurrent and discriminant validity as well as a high internal consistency and that it can be used for the rapid assessment of psychotrauma victims of all age groups; and stress in general in similar age groups in the local setting. It is culture appropriate and sensitive.

Language: en