BACKGROUNDThe Composite International Diagnostic Interview-3.0 (CIDI-3.0) is a fully structured lay-administered diagnostic interview for the assessment of mental disorders according to ICD-10 and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria. The aim of the study was to investigate the concurrent validity of the Chinese CIDI in diagnosing mental disorders in psychiatric settings.

METHODSWe recruited 208 participants, of whom 148 were patients from two psychiatric hospitals and 60 healthy people from communities. These participants were administered with CIDI by six trained lay interviewers and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I, gold standard) by two psychiatrists. Agreement between CIDI and SCID-I was assessed with sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value. Individual-level CIDI-SCID diagnostic concordance was evaluated using the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve and Cohen's K.

RESULTSSubstantial to excellent CIDI to SCID concordance was found for any substance use disorder (area under the receiver operator characteristic curve [AUC] = 0.926), any anxiety disorder (AUC = 0.807) and any mood disorder (AUC = 0.806). The concordance between the CIDI and the SCID for psychotic and eating disorders is moderate. However, for individual mental disorders, the CIDI-SCID concordance for bipolar disorders (AUC = 0.55) and anorexia nervosa (AUC = 0.50) was insufficient.

CONCLUSIONSOverall, the Chinese version of CIDI-3.0 has acceptable validity in diagnosing the substance use disorder, anxiety disorder and mood disorder among Chinese adult population. However, we should be cautious when using it for bipolar disorders and anorexia nervosa.