Validity Study of the K6 Scale as a Measure of Moderate Mental Distress based on Mental Health Treatment Need and Utilization

By J. Prochaska, H. Sung, W. Max, Yanling Shi, M. Ong. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 2012

859 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The widely‐used Kessler K6 non‐specific distress scale screens for severe mental illness defined as a K6 score ≥ 13, estimated to afflict about 6% of US adults. The K6, as currently used, fails to capture individuals struggling with more moderate mental distress that nonetheless warrants mental health intervention. The current study determined a cutoff criterion on the K6 scale indicative of moderate mental distress based on mental health treatment need and assessed the validity of this criterion by comparing participants with identified moderate and severe mental distress on relevant clinical, impairment, and risk behavior measures. Data were analyzed from 50,880 adult participants in the 2007 California Health Interview Survey. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identified K6 ≥ 5 as the optimal lower threshold cut‐point indicative of moderate mental distress. Based on the K6, 8.6% of California adults had serious mental distress and another 27.9% had moderate mental distress. Correlates of moderate and serious mental distress were similar. Respondents with moderate mental distress had rates of mental health care utilization, impairment, substance use and other risks lower than respondents with serious mental distress and greater than respondents with none/low mental distress. The findings support expanded use and analysis of the K6 scale in quantifying and examining correlates of mental distress at a moderate, yet still clinically relevant, level. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Subfields: Psychiatry and Mental health, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b387f8aa6462eca2c6533edc6689340bf510d4ef

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Health and Mental Health Effects of Local Immigration Enforcement (2018, neutral): “Wang and Kaushal 983 associated with higher levels of mental health care utilization, mental health impairment, substance use, sedentary behavior, and obesity (Prochaska et al. 2012).”
Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown on trust, attitudes toward government, and well-being. (2020, background): “Although serious levels of mental distress usually indicate mental illness, moderate levels of distress also warrant intervention (Kessler et al., 2010; Prochaska et al., 2012).”
"I Hear You, I Feel You": Encouraging Deep Self-disclosure through a Chatbot (2020, background): “The other criteria for participation were: 1) that they were aged 18 or above; 2) that they were able to read and speak English fluently; and 3) that their Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) scores were lower than 13 [40], which suggested that they did not have a current serious mental health”