OBJECTIVETo examine the applicability of Chinese Health Questionnaire (Taiwan version) (CHQ) originated from General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) for mental disorder screening in community settings in mainland China.

METHODSA pilot study was conducted in Hangzhou (n = 377). Three thousand seven hundred and seven subjects were recruited from four cities to validate the results of the pilot study. Validation of the Screening Questionnaire was analyzed, using Relative Operating Characteristic (ROC) method.

RESULTSCronbach's alpha coefficients were calculated to be 0.79 for the 12-items and 0.89 for 30-items to CHQ version in the first sample, and 0.74 in the second sample (12-items). Four factors were extracted from the CHQ-30, including somatic symptoms, anxiety and worry, social dysfunction, poor family relationship, and depression. CHQ-12 could be explained by a single factor in both samples. The areas under ROC were 0.80 (95% CI: 0.70 - 0.89) for 12 items and 0.72 (95% CI: 0.62 - 0.82) for 30 items. The sensitivities of CHQ-12 and CHQ-30 were found to be 76.9% and 71.8%, and the specificities were 73.8% and 67.9% with Kappa value 0.44 (P = 0.00) and 0.38 (P = 0.00), respectively. The estimated rates of mental disorder were 18.13% (95% CI: 14.16 - 22.10) by CHQ-12, and 22.80% (95% CI: 18.19 - 27.11) by CHQ-30 in the first sample and the rates were 21.72% (95% CI: 20.39 - 23.05) by CHQ-12 in the second sample.

CONCLUSIONCHQ, especially CHQ-12 through slight language modification, could be used for epidemiological studies and on community health care to screen for mental disorder in the mainland of China.