Validation of the Chinese version bodily distress syndrome checklist in Chinese out-patients of general hospitals

• Published in: Journal of psychosomatic research 2022-02, Vol.153, p.110702-110702, Article 110702
• Main Authors: Huang, Mingjin, Chen, Ran, Wei, Jing, Fritzsche, Kurt, Toussaint, Anne Christin, Zhang, Yaoyin, Chen, Hua, Wu, Heng, Ma, Xiquan, Li, Wentian, Ren, Jie, Lu, Wei, Müller, Anne-Maria, Leonhart, Rainer, Zhang, Lan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety disorders; Biomedicine; Check lists; Checklist; Checklists; China; Chinese languages; Chinese version BDS checklist; Clinical research; Construct validity; Convergent validity; Cross-Sectional Studies; Discriminant validity; Factor analysis; Generalized anxiety disorder; Hospitals; Hospitals, General; Humans; Outpatients; Patients; Psychological distress; Psychometric property; Psychometrics - methods; Psychosomatic medicine; Quantitative psychology; Questionnaires; Reproducibility of Results; Surveys and Questionnaires; Symptoms; Syndrome; Test-Retest reliability; Traditional medicine; Validation studies; Validity
• ISSN: 0022-3999; 1879-1360
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2021.110702

The 25-item Bodily Distress Syndromes (BDS) checklist was developed to assess BDS symptoms with high validity and reliability. The aim of this study was to reveal the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the BDS checklist in Chinese outpatients of general hospitals. A cross-sectional study was carried out in nine Chinese general hospitals, consisting of three different medicine settings: biomedicine, traditional medicine, and psychosomatic medicine. The 25-item BDS checklist was translated into the Chinese version and conducted on outpatients from all nine centers. We performed validity and reliability analyses, including test-retest reliability, construct validity, and internal consistency reliability, on the collected checklist data. The convergent validity of the BDS checklist was analyzed with Pearson's Coefficient vs. Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15). The discriminant validity of the BDS checklist was analyzed with Pearson's Coefficient vs. Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Whiteley-8 (WI-8). A total of 699 patients were included in this study. The test-retest reliability, construct validity, and internal consistency reliability of the Chinese version of the BDS were satisfactory in our study. Factor analyses identified five distinct determining factors: cardiopulmonary, gastric, intestinal, musculoskeletal, and general symptoms. Pearson's coefficients were found to be high in both discriminant validity and convergent validity analyses. The results provide empirical support for the Chinese version of the BDS checklist in patients in general hospitals. The Chinese version of the BDS checklist is potentially valuable for case finding in both clinical practice and research in Chinese. •Psychometric properties of Chinese version BDS Checklist were satisfactory.•Factor analyses identified five distinct determining factors of the checklist.•Convergent validity was high while discriminant validity was relatively low.