Adaptation and Validation of the Questionnaire on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a Peruvian Population

Abstract

Introduction: The high prevalence of mental disorders such as stress, in prolonged stressful situations induced by a pandemic, demands their timely identification and assessment; in order to do this, contextualized instruments with adequate metric properties are required.

Objective: To validate the Questionnaire on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Symptomatology in a Peruvian population.

Methods: An instrumental study was conducted in the region of Ica, in Peru, from June to November 2021, with 412 adult participants. The process included translation into Spanish, content assessment by judges, and pilot testing. Construct validity was evaluated by exploratory factor analysis; and fit, with confirmatory factor analysis, which included the robust unweighted least squares estimation method. Reliability was evaluated with McDonald's Omega, while the posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology was compared with general variables.

Results: The obtained version included 18 items, grouped into four factors that explained 70.78% of the total variance. Also, an acceptable fit was obtained [x2/gl=1.54; NFI and CFI=0.99; SRMR=0.052; RMSEA=0.036 (90% CI: 0.26-0.46)]. The items discriminate satisfactorily, as does the scale according to sex, marital status and those with a family member who died from COVID-19. Internal consistency was adequate for the global scale (ω=0.924) and its dimensions (EDA=0.740; IEAN = 0.882; A=0.786 and CE=0.811).

Conclusion: The new Peruvian version of the instrument has acceptable metric properties; therefore, its use is recommended for assessing posttraumatic stress disorder and validation studies.