ArticlePeerJ2017
Pattern analysis of total item score and item response of the Kessler Screening Scale for Psychological Distress (K6) in a nationally representative sample of US adults.
Article in PeerJ, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed.
- Trial
- Distinguishing between the exponential and Lindley distributions: An illustration from biological psychology.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- The protective power of social connectedness: Individual vs. community influences on psychological distress in middle-aged Black adults.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2025Article
- When money and mental health problems pile up: The reciprocal relationship between income and psychological distress.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- Regional Differences in Serious Psychological Distress and Overall Physical and Mental Health.Community mental health journal · 2022Article
- The GAD-7 and the PHQ-8 exhibit the same mathematical pattern of item responses in the general population: analysis of data from the National Health Interview Survey.BMC psychology · 2021Article
- Mathematical pattern of Kessler psychological distress distribution in the general population of the U.S. and Japan.BMC psychiatry · 2021Article
- Review
- Age-Related Changes in Item Responses to the Patient Health Questionnaire-9: Evidence From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Article
- Responses to depressive symptom items exhibit a common mathematical pattern across the European populations.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Distribution of psychological distress is stable in recent decades and follows an exponential pattern in the US population.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Article
- Distributional patterns of item responses and total scores on the PHQ-9 in the general population: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.BMC psychiatry · 2018Article
- Stability of the Distribution of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Scores Against Age in the General Population: Data From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Article
- Article
- Exponential distribution of total depressive symptom scores in relation to exponential latent trait and item threshold distributions: a simulation study.BMC research notes · 2017Article
- Characteristic distribution of the total and individual item scores on the Kessler Screening Scale for Psychological Distress (K6) in US adults.BMC psychiatry · 2017Article
- Item Response Patterns on the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 in a Nationally Representative Sample of US Adults.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSeveral recent studies have shown that total scores on depressive symptom measures in a general population approximate an exponential pattern except for the lower end of the distribution. Furthermore, we confirmed that the exponential pattern is present for the individual item responses on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). To confirm the reproducibility of such findings, we investigated the total score distribution and item responses of the Kessler Screening Scale for Psychological Distress (K6) in a nationally representative study.
methodsData were drawn from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), which comprises four subsamples: (1) a national random digit dialing (RDD) sample, (2) oversamples from five metropolitan areas, (3) siblings of individuals from the RDD sample, and (4) a national RDD sample of twin pairs. K6 items are scored using a 5-point scale: "none of the time," "a little of the time," "some of the time," "most of the time," and "all of the time." The pattern of total score distribution and item responses were analyzed using graphical analysis and exponential regression model.
resultsThe total score distributions of the four subsamples exhibited an exponential pattern with similar rate parameters. The item responses of the K6 approximated a linear pattern from "a little of the time" to "all of the time" on log-normal scales, while "none of the time" response was not related to this exponential pattern. DISCUSSION: The total score distribution and item responses of the K6 showed exponential patterns, consistent with other depressive symptom scales.
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