TY - JOUR
T1 - Cross-Country Validation of the Arabic Version of the Prodromal Questionnaire–Brief (PQ‐B) in Young Adults from the General Population of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region
AU - Fekih-Romdhane, Feten
AU - Jahrami, Haitham
AU - Alhuwailah, Amthal
AU - Fawaz, Mirna
AU - Shuwiekh, Hanaa Ahmed Mohamed
AU - Helmy, Mai
AU - Mohammed Hassan, Ibrahim Hassan
AU - Naser, Abdallah Y.
AU - Zarrouq, Btissame
AU - Chebly, Marianne
AU - El-Frenn, Yara
AU - Yazbeck, Gabriella
AU - Salameh, Gaelle
AU - Hamdan-Mansour, Ayman
AU - Radwan, Eqbal
AU - Cherif, Wissal
AU - Obeid, Sahar
AU - Cheour, Majda
AU - Hallit, Souheil
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The concept of early intervention in psychosis is still novel and evolving in some Arab countries, while completely non-existent in most of the other countries. What further complicates the introduction of this concept in the Arab world is the lack of easy-to-use and low-cost Arabic language screening tools. We aimed through the present study to perform a cross-country validation of the Prodromal Questionnaire–Brief (PQ‐B) into the Arabic language. We conducted a cross-sectional cross-national analysis based on 3247 respondents from six countries (i.e., Tunisia, Lebanon, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco). All participants answered the Arabic PQ-B and a set of measures used to determine the discriminant validity of the scale (psychological distress and suicidal ideation). Within this study, we also analyzed the factorial structure of the scale and its reliability. We found that 54.2% of participants screened positive for prodromal symptoms, with variations across countries ranging from 47.7% in Lebanon to 62.0% in Egypt. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that fit of the one-factor model of PQ-B items was very good (CFI =.92; TLI =.91; RMSEA =.075 [90% CI.073–.077]. The Cronbach’s alpha values were >.90 for the total sample, in all six countries and in both genders. Findings also showed that the Arabic PQ-B is invariant across gender groups at the metric, configural, and scalar levels. Between-gender comparisons revealed no significant differences between males and females regarding PQ-B scores. Higher PQ-B scores correlated significantly but weakly with higher levels of psychological distress and more suicidal ideation. Findings provide evidence of excellent reliability and discriminant validity of the one-factor structure of the PQ-B in its Arabic version. The Arabic PQ-B appears thus promising as a screening tool to detect prodromal psychosis symptoms in Arabic speaking communities.
AB - The concept of early intervention in psychosis is still novel and evolving in some Arab countries, while completely non-existent in most of the other countries. What further complicates the introduction of this concept in the Arab world is the lack of easy-to-use and low-cost Arabic language screening tools. We aimed through the present study to perform a cross-country validation of the Prodromal Questionnaire–Brief (PQ‐B) into the Arabic language. We conducted a cross-sectional cross-national analysis based on 3247 respondents from six countries (i.e., Tunisia, Lebanon, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco). All participants answered the Arabic PQ-B and a set of measures used to determine the discriminant validity of the scale (psychological distress and suicidal ideation). Within this study, we also analyzed the factorial structure of the scale and its reliability. We found that 54.2% of participants screened positive for prodromal symptoms, with variations across countries ranging from 47.7% in Lebanon to 62.0% in Egypt. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that fit of the one-factor model of PQ-B items was very good (CFI =.92; TLI =.91; RMSEA =.075 [90% CI.073–.077]. The Cronbach’s alpha values were >.90 for the total sample, in all six countries and in both genders. Findings also showed that the Arabic PQ-B is invariant across gender groups at the metric, configural, and scalar levels. Between-gender comparisons revealed no significant differences between males and females regarding PQ-B scores. Higher PQ-B scores correlated significantly but weakly with higher levels of psychological distress and more suicidal ideation. Findings provide evidence of excellent reliability and discriminant validity of the one-factor structure of the PQ-B in its Arabic version. The Arabic PQ-B appears thus promising as a screening tool to detect prodromal psychosis symptoms in Arabic speaking communities.
KW - Arab countries
KW - Assessment
KW - PQ-B
KW - Psychosis
KW - Screening
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85152677542&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85152677542&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11469-023-01048-4
DO - 10.1007/s11469-023-01048-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85152677542
SN - 1557-1874
JO - International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
JF - International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction
ER -
