The Self-Assessment Perceived Global Distress Scale—Reliability and Construct Validity —Perceived Global Distress Scale

Objective: the aim was to study psychometric properties of the Perceived Global Distress Scale (PGD) for people with severe mental illness, mainly with schizophrenia disorders. Methods: PGD is a Visual Analogue Scale included in “The Quality Star”, a minimal platform for clinical follow-up and efficiency documentation of mental health services in eight dimensions used in Sweden. Naturalistic data was used. Validating instruments included Quality of Life-100, Symptom Check List-90, Consumer Satisfaction Rating Scale—self-rating version, Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA), Global Quality of Life scale, Care Burden Scale for Relatives, Perceived Global Burden, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Side Effect Rating Scale (SERS), and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF)—the split-GAF version. Concurrent validity with corresponding item in MANSA was explored. Test-retest reliability of the GQL was examined. Results: the content validity was clarified by associations with validating measures from several contexts in three studies, supporting construct validity. Concurrent validity with the last item MANSA, “How satisfied are you with your mental health?”, was demonstrated. Test-retest reliability was indicated. Conclusion: the Perceived Global Distress Scale (PGD) was shown to have acceptable psychometric properties and valid for serious mental ill persons with schizophrenia disorders. Its use as an easy-to-use instrument for the screening of perceived global mental distress was supported.