Validation of a brief mental health screening tool for common mental disorders in primary healthcare.

BACKGROUND: Integrating care for common mental disorders (CMDs) such as depression, anxiety and alcohol abuse into primary healthcare (PHC) should assist in reducing South Africa (SA)'s quadruple burden of disease. CMDs compromise treatment adherence, health behaviour change and self-management of illnesses. Appropriate identification of mental disorders in primary care can be facilitated by brief, easy-to-administer screening that promotes high specificity. OBJECTIVES: To establish the criterion-based validity of a seven-item Brief Mental Health (BMH) screening tool for assessing positive symptoms of CMDs in primary care patients. METHODS: A total of 1 214 participants were recruited from all patients aged ≥18 years visiting 10 clinics as part of routine care in the Newcastle subdistrict of Amajuba District in KwaZulu-Natal Province, SA, over a period of 2 weeks. Consenting patients provided basic biographical information prior to screening with the BMH tool. PHC nurses remained blind to this assessment. PHC nurse-initiated assessment using the Adult Primary Care (APC) guidelines was the gold standard against which the performance of the BMH tool was compared. A specificity standard of 80% was used to establish cut-points. Specificity was favoured over sensitivity to ensure that those who did not have CMD symptoms were excluded, as well as to reduce over-referrals. RESULTS: Of the participants, 72% were female. The AUD-C (alcohol abuse) performed well (area under the curve (AUC) 0.91 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88 - 0.95), cut-point ≥4, Cronbach alpha 0.87); PHQ-2 (depression) performed reasonably well (AUC 0.72 (95% CI 0.65 - 0.78), cut-point ≥3, alpha 0.71); and GAD-2 (anxiety) performance was acceptable (AUC 0.69 (95% CI 0.58 - 0.80), cut-point ≥3, alpha 0.62). Using the higher cut-off scores, patients who truly did not have CMD symptoms had negative predictive values (NPVs) of >90%. Overall, 26% of patients had CMD positive symptoms relative to 8% using the APC guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: Using a higher specificity index, the positive predictive value and NPV show that at higher cut-point values the BMH not only helps identify individuals with alcohol misuse, depression and anxiety symptoms but also identifies a majority of those who do not have symptoms (true negatives), thus not overburdening nurses with false positives needing assessment. Research is needed to assess whether use of such a short and valid screening tool is generalisable to other clinic contexts as well as how mental health screening should best be introduced into routine clinic functioning and practice.

Early warning indicators for HIV drug resistance in adults in South Africa at 2 pilot sites, 2008-2010.

BACKGROUND: Approximately 5.2 million people in South Africa were infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by the year 2010, with just over 30% initiated on highly active antiretroviral therapy by 2011. With such numbers involved, the potential for the emergence of HIV drug resistance (HIVDR) is high. This study piloted early warning indicators (EWIs) for HIVDR at 2 clinics in South Africa. METHODS: HIV-infected individuals aged ≥15 years and receiving antiretroviral drugs were enrolled into this cohort study between March 2008 and February 2010. All analyses were performed using the 2012 World Health Organization EWI score card. RESULTS: A total of 1144 subjects were enrolled. Clinic A reached the target for 2 of the 5 EWIs but missed the desired target for on-time pill pickup, pharmacy stockouts, and virological suppression. Clinic B reached the target for 1 of 4 EWIs, namely, dispensing practices. Targets were missed for on-time pill pickup, retention in care, and virological suppression. Pharmacy stockouts could not be calculated at this site. CONCLUSIONS: Actual performance against the levels that the pilot sites should reach to minimize HIVDR was low. Improvements in follow-up procedures, internal adherence support, monitoring for drug stockouts, and adherence are all aspects that need support to ensure that all records are complete. This pilot study may help to inform the South African government as EWI monitoring is implemented.