@article{ref1,
title="Classification of Iranian nurses according to their mental health outcomes using ghq-12 questionnaire: a comparison between latent class analysis and k-means clustering with traditional scoring method",
journal="Materia socio-medica",
year="2015",
author="Jamali, Jamshid and Ayatollahi, Seyyed Mohammad Taghi",
volume="27",
number="5",
pages="337-341",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Nurses constitute the most providers of health care systems. Their mental health can affect the quality of services and patients' satisfaction. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) is a general screening tool used to detect mental disorders. Scoring method and determining thresholds for this questionnaire are debatable and the cut-off points can vary from sample to sample. This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of mental disorders among Iranian nurses using GHQ-12 and also compare Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and K-means clustering with traditional scoring method. <br><br>METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study was carried out in Fars and Bushehr provinces of southern Iran in 2014. Participants were 771 Iranian nurses, who filled out the GHQ-12 questionnaire. Traditional scoring method, LCA and K-means were used to estimate the prevalence of mental disorder among Iranian nurses. Cohen's kappa statistic was applied to assess the agreement between the LCA and K-means with traditional scoring method of GHQ-12. <br><br>RESULTS: The nurses with mental disorder by scoring method, LCA and K-mean were 36.3% (n=280), 32.2% (n=248), and 26.5% (n=204), respectively. LCA and logistic regression revealed that the prevalence of mental disorder in females was significantly higher than males. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Mental disorder in nurses was in a medium level compared to other people living in Iran. There was a little difference between prevalence of mental disorder estimated by scoring method, K-means and LCA. According to the advantages of LCA than K-means and different results in scoring method, we suggest LCA for classification of Iranian nurses according to their mental health outcomes using GHQ-12 questionnaire.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1512-7680",
doi="10.5455/msm.2015.27.337-341",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.5455/msm.2015.27.337-341"
}