Relationships of the Todai Health Index to the General Health Questionnaire and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.

In Japan, however, epidemiologic studies in these areas are sparse. One of the reasons may be due to the fact that there have been few conventional questionnaires applicable to such epidemiologic surveys. Recently, however, the validity and reliability of the Zung self-rating depression scale9) have been tested by Kawakami and Koizumi10). Several investigations of subjective health status have been performed according to the Cornell Medical Index (CMI), while a few others used the Todai Health Index (THI). Although both the CMI and the THI have been recognized as useful questionnaires for such surveys11), they consist of too many items, 195 and 130, respectively. Therefore, research based on these questionnaires is attended with some difficulties. As self-rating questionnaires, the General Health Questionnaire12,13) (GHQ) and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale14) (CES-D) have been widely applied to such researches in the United States and in European countries. Each of the questionnaires is so brief that it takes only a short time to be completed; thus, they have been easily applicable to many types of surveys. In Japan, neither the validity nor the reliability of either questionnaire has been recognized in samples of adult workers, though Nakagawa and Daibo15) reported that the sensitivity, specificity and overall misclassification rate of the GHQ were 94.2%, 76.4% and 13.7%, respectively, in a comparison between neurotic patients and normal controls. In the present study the authors examine the relationships between these questionnaires and the THI as a test battery. This paper presents basic data about the nature and the criterion-related validities and reliabilities of the Japanese versions of the GHQ and the CES-D in epidemiologic surveys.