Validation of the self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ 20) in British Pakistani and White European population in the United Kingdom

- Despite at least a twofold increase in patients' use of evidence-based treatments over the years, the prevalence of depression has not decreased.
- Due to comparatively higher prevalence of depression amongst certain British ethnic minorities, there is greater need for improving depression detection rates.
- The SRQ is a useful screening questionnaire for both white British and British Pakistani ethnic groups.
- The optimum cut-off point of SRQ is 6 for the British Pakistani population.

BackgroundThe incidence of depression is difficult to determine because of low clinical depression detection rates in the primary care setting. This low level of detection is a significantly greater problem in people from ethnic minority communities. The availability of culturally validated screening questionnaires might help to improve the detection and treatment of depression.MethodThe aim of the study was to assess the validity of the self-reporting questionnaire SRQ 20, (English and Urdu versions) in white Europeans and British Pakistanis and to determine the optimum cut-off scores for detecting depression. Validation of the English and Urdu versions of the SRQ was conducted with a sample of white Europeans and British Pakistani participants. The semi-structured Schedule for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN) was used as the gold standard diagnostic interview, and receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to evaluate SRQ test performance.ResultsThe SRQ was completed by 1856 participants out of whom 651 completed the SCAN interview. The SRQ sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values versus SCAN indicated a cut-off score of 7 as optimum for white Europeans and a cut-off score of 6 for British Pakistanis.LimitationsThis study focused on depression alone and did not take into consideration comorbid conditions such as anxiety which might have affected the way respondents answered the questions and contributed to comparatively lower optimum cut-off scores in British Pakistanis.ConclusionsThe findings of this validation study provide evidence for high sensitivity and specificity of SRQ amongst both white Europeans and British Pakistanis. The SRQ can be used as a routine screening questionnaire for depression in English and Urdu speaking populations in the UK.