How to integrate proxy data from two informants in life event assessment in psychological autopsy

BMC Psychiatry

Le Fang¹  Jie Zhang²  Youqing Wang³ 

[1] Department of Non-communicable Diseases Control and Prevention, Zhejiang Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention;School of Public Health and Center for Suicide Prevention Research, Shandong University;Zhejiang Cancer Center, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital;

关键词: Suicide;    Life event;    Psychological autopsy;    Proxy data;    Informant;    Methodology;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-018-1698-7

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background Life event assessment is an important part in psychological autopsy, and how to integrate its proxy data from two informants is a major methodological issue which needs solving. Methods Totally 416 living subjects and their two informants were interviewed by psychological autopsy, and life events were assessed with Paykel’s Interview for Recent Life Events. Validities of integrated proxy data using six psychological autopsy information reconstruction methods were evaluated, with living subjects’ self-reports used as gold-standard criteria. Results For all the life events, average value of Youden Indexes for proxy data by type C information reconstruction method (choosing positive value from two informants) was larger than other five methods’. For family life related events, proxy data by type 1st information reconstruction method were not significantly different from living subjects’ self-reports (P = 0.828). For all other life events, proxy data by type C information reconstruction method were not significantly different from the gold-standard. Conclusions Choosing positive value is a relatively better method for integrating dichotomous (positive vs. negative) proxy data from two informants in life event assessment in psychological autopsy, except for family life related events. In that case, using information provided by 1st informants (mainly family member) is recommended.

【 授权许可】

Unknown