ArticleAnnals of family medicine
Asking for help is helpful: validation of a brief lifestyle and mood assessment tool in primary health care.
Article in Annals of family medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Safe Pregnancy intervention for intimate partner violence: a randomised controlled trial in Norway among culturally diverse pregnant women.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Trial
- Comparison of YouthCHAT, an Electronic Composite Psychosocial Screener, With a Clinician Interview Assessment for Young People: Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Trial
- Co-occurrence of lifestyle and mental health issues in adolescents: A cross-sectional study of the YouthCHAT cohort in Aotearoa New Zealand.Dialogues in health · 2026Article
- High prevalence of harmful drinking habits and gambling among professional rugby players: mental health symptoms and lifestyle risks among New Zealand Super Rugby players-a cross-sectional survey.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2024Article
- Screening and Treatment for Co-occurring Gambling and Substance Use: A Scoping Review.Journal of gambling studies · 2023Article
- Development and usability evaluation of an electronic health report form to assess health in young people: a mixed-methods approach.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2023Article
- Identifying patients with psychosocial problems in general practice: A scoping review.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Primary Care: A Study of General Practices in England.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2021Article
- YouthCHAT as a Primary Care E-Screening Tool for Mental Health Issues Among Te Tai Tokerau Youth: Protocol for a Co-Design Study.JMIR research protocols · 2019Article
- Randomized Trial Comparing the Electronic Composite Psychosocial Screener YouthCHAT With a Clinician-Interview Assessment for Young People: A Study Protocol.JMIR research protocols · 2017Article
- Electronic screening for lifestyle issues and mental health in youth: a community-based participatory research approach.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2016Article
- Computer-assisted client assessment survey for mental health: patient and health provider perspectives.BMC health services research · 2016Article
- Screening for lifestyle and mental health risk factors in the waiting room: feasibility study of the Case-finding Health Assessment Tool.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2014Article
- Article
- A quick and simple screening method for pathological and problem gamblers in addiction programs and practices.The American journal on addictionsArticle
- Screening for risky behaviour and mental health in young people: the YouthCHAT programme.Public health reviewsReview
- eCHAT for lifestyle and mental health screening in primary care.Annals of family medicineArticle
- In this issue: the science, art, and policy of primary care.Annals of family medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe short, validated, self-administered, Case-finding and Help Assessment Tool (CHAT) for lifestyle and mental health assessment of adult patients in primary health care addresses inactivity, tobacco use, alcohol and other drug misuse, problem gambling, depression, anxiety and stress, abuse, and anger problems. For each issue patients are asked whether they would like help, either during the consultation or at a later date. This study aims to assess the value of the help question.
methodsValidation of the CHAT was conducted according to the STAndards for Reporting of Diagnostic accuracy studies statement for diagnostic tests. The setting was Auckland primary care practices with populations ranging from socioeconomically advantaged to deprived. Participants were 755 consecutive primary care patients who completed the CHAT plus the help question and reference standards. Sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios with and without the addition of help the question were calculated.
resultsSensitivity ranged from 80% to 98% for the more-common conditions (depression, nicotine dependency, anxiety, problematic drinking). For each condition, specificity increased with the addition of the help question: depression increased from 73% to 98%; anxiety 77% to 99%; drinking 85% to 99%; verbal anger 92% to 99%; verbal abuse 97% to 99%; problematic drinking and gambling 98% to 99%.
conclusionsThe help question increased specificity without compromising sensitivity and reduced false positives, thereby increasing the positive predictive value. It allowed patients with comorbidities to prioritize issues they wished to address, indicate their readiness to change, promote self-determination, and give the clinician an indication of which topics to pursue.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.