The suicide assessment scale: Psychometric properties of a Norwegian language version

Abstract

Background: Rating scales are valuable tools in suicide research and can also be useful supplements to the clinical interview in suicide risk assessments. This study describes the psychometric properties of a Norwegian language version of the Suicide Assessment Scale Self-report version (SUAS-S). Methods. Participants were fifty-two patients (mean age=39.3years, SD=10.7) with major depression (53.8%), bipolar disorder (25.0%) and/or a personality disorder (63.5%) referred to a psychiatric outpatient clinic. The SUAS-S, the screening section of the Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS-5), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Becks Hopelessness Scale (BHS), the Symptom Check-List-90 R (SCL-90R) and the Clinical Global Impression for Severity of Suicidality (CGI-SS) were administered. One week later, the patients completed the SUAS-S a second time. Results: Cronbachs alpha for SUAS-S was 0.88 and the test-retest reliability was 0.95 (95% CI: 0.93- 0.97). SUAS-S was positively correlated with the BSS-5 (r=0.66; 95% CI: 0.47-0.85) for the study sample as a whole and for the suicidal (r=0.52) and non-suicidal groups (r=0.50) respectively. There was no difference between the SUAS-S and the BSS-5 in the ability to identify suicidality. This ability was more pronounced when the suicide risk was high. There was a substantial intercorrelation between the score on the SUAS-S and the BDI (0.81) and the BHS (0.76). The sensitivity and specificity of the SUAS-S was explored and an appropriate clinical cut-off value was assessed. Conclusions: The study revealed good internal consistency, test-retest reliability and concurrent validity for the Suicide Assessment Scale Self-report version. The discriminatory ability for suicidality was comparable to that of the BSS-5. © 2012 Koldsland et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.