Brief symptom inventory: Reporting brazilian populational parameters during covid-19 pandemics

ABSTRACT

Background: The Brief Symptoms Inventory is a valid and reliable instrument, and one of the most often used tools to assess mental health. Despite its translation to Brazilian Portuguese, there are no normative parameters for interpretation of its scores. Objective: This study provides a normative parameter for interpretation of the performance of a large sample of adults by using a version of BSI adapted to Brazilian Portuguese. Method: We assessed 2127 adults (57% female) from all of the Brazilian regions. Normative data and Internal consistencies and performance data were calculated for the general score index and the nine factors. Results: The associations between gender and BSI scores present a significant effect size. Therefore, we provided a percentile rank parameter for the different BSI subscores, considering the whole sample and gender division. Internal consistency varies from omega equal .87 – .98 and alpha equal .86-.98, which suggests that both GSI and the nine factors have excellent reliability. Discussion: Our results support the use of the Brazilian adaptation of BSI in different regions of the country to measure mental health and its specific factors. During the pandemic of COVID-19, the establishment of normative parameters is of utmost relevance. The stability of the parameters reported here should be addressed in future studies. © 2021, UNIV SAOPAULO. All rights reserved.