Psychometric properties of acute stress disorder questionnaire for people exposed to Kerman earthquake

Some people exposed to disasters will suffer from acute stress disorder (ASD) due to the negative consequences of these disasters. Evaluating this disorder at a large scale requires a credible and standardized tool. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the ASD questionnaire for people exposed to Kerman earthquake.

This is a descriptive‑tooling study, conducted on 435 men and women older than 18 years living in earthquake‑affected areas of Kerman Province (Kouh‑e‑Banan). The study was carried out using the Persian translating of the English version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition ASD questionnaire on accessible individuals living in temporary residence tents in two initial and final stages and different stages of validity and reliability evaluation was carried out. The findings were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation coefficient.

During the evaluation of content validity, no questions were eliminated. To carry out factor analysis, sampling competence, and suitability of sample size were confirmed through Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin and Bartlett’s tests. In the factor analysis stage, 14 items in three factors were defined. The factors were included reexperiencing and analysis, arousal (continuous irritability), and avoidance factors which together explained 59.43% of percentage distribution. In the next stage of evaluating divergent validity, the results indicated a significant and inverse correlation between ASD score and quality of life score (r = −0.43, P = 0.002) of the participants, while there was also a positive and significant correlation between ASD score and general health disorder score of the participants (r = 0.47, P < 0.0001). The reliability of the questionnaire was investigated using Cronbach’s alpha, and inner class correlation coefficient was calculated to be 0.9.

The tool investigated in this study has suitable validity and reliability and is effective for use by psychologists and relief workers for necessary interventions and prevention of ASD in disasters.