Browsing by Author "Peiris, U."

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Factor structure and reliability of the 12-item Sinhala version of General Health Questionnaire
(DRUNPP Sarajevo, 2012) Abeysena, C.; Jayawardana, P.; Peiris, U.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the factor structure and the reliability of the Sinhala version of GHQ 12. METHODS: This was a descriptive study including 385 patients with in the age range of 18 to 75 years, attending the Out Patient Department of Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama, Sri Lanka, between June 2009 to September 2010. Sinhala version of GHQ312 was completed by the participants. Each item of the GHQ was rated on a four 3 point scale (0313233). Factor analyses were performed by applying Generalized Least Squares method using oblimin rotation. The internal consistency was assessed by calculating Cronbach’s α coefficient. RESULTS: Median age of the study population was 32.5 years (IQR= 21years) and the median GHQ score was 9 (IQR=7). The GHQ 12 yielded two factor solutions. Factor I (Depression and Anxiety) accounted for 88% of the total explained variance and Factor II (Social dysfunction) 12%. Forty five percent (45%) of the total variance could be explained by the two extracted factors. There was a clear distinction between the items that loaded on the two factors. The correlation coe fficient between the factors I and II was 0.65. The Cronbach's alpha of GHQ 12 was 0.88, which indicated satisfactory internal consistency. CONCLUSIONS: GHQ 12 displays adequate reliability and validity f or use in the Sinhala speaking primary care attendees of Colombo North Teaching Hospital for assessing psychiatric disorders.
Factor structure and reliability of the 12-item Sinhala version of general health questionnaires
(University of Kelaniya, 2011) Abeysena, C.; Jayawardana, P.; Peiris, U.
The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) is widely used to detect psychiatric disorders. There are advantages of using GHQ 12 over other versions of GHQ, of which the former is brief, simple and less time consuming to administer. Therefore, it is easily used for both research purposes and in a busy clinical setting to screen patients. Even though GHQ 12 has been validated for many countries, psychometric properties in relation to the Sinhala speaking Sri Lankan population lack conclusive evidence. The objective of this study is to determine the factor structure and the reliability of the Sinhala version of GHQ 12. This was a descriptive study including 386 patients within the age range of 18 to 75 years, attending the Out Patient Department of the Colombo North Teaching Hospital during the period between June 2009 and September 2010. The Sinhala version of GHQ-12 was given to be completed by the participants. Each item of the GHQ was rated on a four-point scale (0-1-2-3). Factor analyses were performed by applying Generalized Least Squares method using oblimin rotation. The internal consistency was assessed by calculating Cronbach‟s  coefficient. The median age of the study population was 32.5 years (IQR= 21years) and the median GHQ score was 9 (IQR 7). GHQ 12 yielded two factor solutions. Factor I (Depression and Anxiety) accounts for 88% of the total explained variance and Factor II (Social dysfunction) 12%. Forty five percent (45 %) of the total variance can be explained by two extracted factors. There was a clear distinction between the items that loaded on the two factors. The correlation coefficient between factor I and II was 0.65. Cronbach's alpha of GHQ 12 was found to be 0.88, indicating satisfactory internal consistency. The conclusions of the study show that GHQ 12 displays adequate reliability and validity for use in the Sinhala speaking Sri Lankan population for assessing psychiatric disorders.
Factor structure and reliability of the 30-item Sinhala version of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)
(Elsevier, 2012) Abeysena, C.; Jayawardana, P.; Peiris, U.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the factor structure and the reliability of the Sinhala version of the General Health Questionnaire-30 (GHQ-30). METHODS: This was a descriptive study including 368 patients with in the age range of 18-75 years, attending the Out Patient Department (OPD) of Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama, Sri Lanka during the period between June 2009 and September 2010. Sinhala version of GHQ-30 was given to be completed by the participants. Each item of the GHQ was rated on a four-point scale (0-1-2-3). Factor analyses were performed by applying Generalized Least Squares method using oblimin rotation. The internal consistency was assessed by calculating Cronbach's α coefficient. RESULTS: Median age of the study population was 32.5 years (Inter quartile range [IQR]=21 years) and the median GHQ score was 9 (IQR 7). GHQ-30 produced a five factor solution which accounted for 51.6% of the total variance (TV). Factor I (Depression) accounted for 38% of TV, Factor II (Loss of confidence) 5%, Factor III (Insomnia) 4%, Factor IV (Social dysfunction) 2.7% and Factor V (Anxiety) 2%. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients of GHQ-30 was 0.94 indicating satisfactory internal consistency. CONCLUSIONS: GHQ-30 comprises five factors/sub scales and it displayed adequate reliability for assessment of psychiatric disorders among Sinhala speaking primary care attendees in Sri Lanka.
Imposing restrictions on pornography: its potential impact and effectiveness in Sri Lanka
(Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists, 2011) Waduge, R.; Rodrigo, A.; Peiris, U.
The government of Sri Lanka recently introduced many measures to limit the accessibility and availability of pornography in the country including censorship of websites containing sexually explicit material and active prosecution of Sri Lankans who appeared on such websites Available evidence suggests that pornographic consumption among Sri Lankan adolescents is considerable and such exposure may influence sexual attitudes and activity including sexual aggression in youth. However the current evidence on the beneficial effects of censorship of pornography is less than convincing. The authors believe that warm, communicative parent-child relationship and open discussion about sexual matters at home and at school could be more effective than restrictive measures such as censorship and punitive legislation
Validation of the Sinhala version of 30-item General Health Questionnaires
(DRUNPP Sarajevo, 2012) Abeysena, C.; Peiris, U.; Jayawardana, P.; Rodrigo, A.
BACKGROUND: The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) is a widely used instrument to detect non potential psychotic psychological problems. The Sinhala translation of GHQ 30 has been widely used for research purposes in Sri Lanka, but details pertaining to the validation procedure have not been published. Objective: To determine the criterion validity of Sinhala versions of GHQ 30. METHODS: This was a descriptive cross sectional study including 374 patients aged 18 to 75 years ,attending Out Patient Department of Colombo North Teaching Hospital between June 2009 to September 2010. Self administered Sinhala version of GHQ 30 was completed by the participants. Clinical Examination was done blindly to the GHQ score by a Psychiatrist based on ICD 10 classification of Depression/Anxiety/social dysfunction as reference standard. Cutoff values for GHQ 30 was determined by applying Receiver Operation Characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: Optimal cutoff levels were 5/6 for GHQ 30 with a sensitivity of 67.5% (95%CI: 59%–76%) and a specificity of 80% (95%CI: 75%–85%). Optimal cutoff levels were not changed by sex, age and educational levels. The area under the ROC curve for GHQ 30 was 0.79. Despite above, multilevel likelihood ratios of >1 were obtained only for total scores of ≥7 for GHQ 30. CONCLUSIONS: GHQ 30 displays adequate validity for use in the Sinhala speaking primary care setting attendees for assessing psychiatric disorders.
Validity of 30-item sinhala version of general health questionnaires
(University of Kelaniya, 2011) Abeysena, C.; Jayawardana, P.; Peiris, U.; Rodrigo, A.
The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) is widely used to detect psychiatric disorders. The Sinhala translation of GHQ 30 has been widely used for research purposes in Sri Lanka, but details pertaining to the validation procedure have not been published. The objective of the study is to determine the criterion validity of the Sinhala version of GHQ-30. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study, including 374 patients within the age range of 18 to 75 years, attending the Out Patient Department of the Colombo North Teaching Hospital during the period between June 2009 and September 2010. The Sinhala version of GHQ-30 was given to be completed by the participants. Structured clinical examination was done blindly to the GHQ score by the Consultant Psychiatrist based on the ICD 10 classification of Depression/Anxiety as the reference standard. Threshold values for GHQ-30 were determined by applying Receiver Operation Characteristic (ROC) curves. The results show that according to the ROC curve, the optimal cutoff level was 5/6 of GHQ-30, with sensitivity of 67.5%, specificity of 80%. Subgroup analysis revealed that all the subgroups had an optimal cutoff level of 5/6 except for females which was 4/5. The GHQ-30 misclassified 26.1% of subjects either with false positives or negatives when the cutoff level was 5/6. With regard to stratum specific likelihood ratios, a value of > 1 was obtained only with a total score of 7 and above and for a cutoff level set at 6/7, sensitivity and specificity were 64% and 84% respectively with a misclassification rate of 25.9%. In conclusion, GHQ-30 is a useful method for assessing psychiatric disorders in the Sinhala speaking Sri Lankan population.