Fekih-Romdhane Feten, Al Mouzakzak Fadila, Abilmona Ghinwa, Moustafa Ahmed, Dahdouh Oussama, Hallit Souheil
Tunis El Manar University, Faculty of Medicine of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia.
The Tunisian Center of Early Intervention in Psychosis, Department of psychiatry "Ibn Omrane", Razi hospital, Manouba, 2010, Tunisia.
Heliyon. 2024 Oct 23;10(21):e39792. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e39792. eCollection 2024 Nov 15.
Research on anxiety in patients with schizophrenia of Arab origin is surprisingly scarce, particularly given that expressions of both psychotic disorders and anxiety disorders can be largely shaped by cultural factors. This study proposes to complement previous research by exploring the psychometric characteristics of an Arabic translation of the Staden Schizophrenia Anxiety Rating Scale (S-SARS) in chronic, remitted patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. As the Arabic version of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale (GAD-7) has not been previously validated in Arabic in patients with schizophrenia, this study had as a secondary aim to investigate the psychometric properties of this scale before its use.
This cross-sectional study was performed over a period of three months (August-October 2023). A total of 177 chronic inpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia (63.3 % males) who were remitted and clinically stable participated in the study.
Confirmatory factor analyses showed that all 10 items loaded onto a single factor and had high factor loading values between .53 and .81. The reliability of the S-SARS in its Arabic version was excellent as attested by a McDonald's omega and a Cronbach's alpha coefficients of .90 and .89, respectively. The score of Arabic S-SARS correlated positively with the GAD-7 scores (r = .55; p < .001), thus supporting good convergent validity. As for discriminant validity, findings showed positive correlations between S-SARS and depression scores as assessed using the Calgary Depressive Symptoms Scale. In addition, the Arabic S-SARS correlated negatively with general functioning, further supporting the good validity and clinical relevance of the scale. Finally, measurement invariance was established in the sex subsamples (males vs. females) at the scalar, metric and configural levels, with females showing more anxiety than males.
Findings suggest that the Arabic S-SARS holds good psychometric properties, and is suitable for use among Arabic-speaking people diagnosed with schizophrenia in both research and clinical practice. The Arabic version of S-SARS will hopefully be widely applied to provide useful and timely clinical information for monitoring and adequately treating patients with schizophrenia, in order to improve the course and prognosis of the disease.
令人惊讶的是，关于阿拉伯裔精神分裂症患者焦虑症的研究非常匮乏，尤其是考虑到精神障碍和焦虑症的表现很大程度上可能受到文化因素的影响。本研究旨在通过探索斯泰登精神分裂症焦虑评定量表（S-SARS）阿拉伯语翻译版本在诊断为精神分裂症的慢性缓解期患者中的心理测量学特征，以补充先前的研究。由于广泛性焦虑障碍7项量表（GAD-7）的阿拉伯语版本此前尚未在精神分裂症患者中进行阿拉伯语验证，本研究的第二个目的是在使用该量表之前调查其心理测量学特性。
本横断面研究为期三个月（2023年8月至10月）。共有177名诊断为精神分裂症的慢性住院患者（63.3%为男性）参与了研究，这些患者处于缓解期且临床稳定。
验证性因素分析表明，所有10个项目都加载到一个单一因素上，且因素负荷值较高，介于0.53和0.81之间。阿拉伯语版本的S-SARS的信度非常好，McDonald's omega系数和Cronbach's alpha系数分别为0.90和0.89。阿拉伯语S-SARS得分与GAD-7得分呈正相关（r = 0.55；p < 0.001），从而支持了良好的聚合效度。至于区分效度，研究结果显示S-SARS与使用卡尔加里抑郁症状量表评估的抑郁得分之间呈正相关。此外，阿拉伯语S-SARS与总体功能呈负相关，进一步支持了该量表良好的效度和临床相关性。最后，在标量、度量和构型水平上在性别亚样本（男性与女性）中建立了测量不变性，女性比男性表现出更多的焦虑。
研究结果表明，阿拉伯语S-SARS具有良好的心理测量学特性，适用于在研究和临床实践中对诊断为精神分裂症的阿拉伯语使用者进行使用。阿拉伯语版本的S-SARS有望得到广泛应用，以便为监测和充分治疗精神分裂症患者提供有用且及时的临床信息，从而改善疾病的病程和预后。
