Abstract

Millions of people are grieving the loss of someone who died of COVID-19. However, there have been no screening tools developed to identify individuals who may be suffering from dysfunctional grief during the pandemic. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop and evaluate the properties of the Pandemic Grief Scale (PGS), which is a brief mental health screener to identify probable cases of dysfunctional grief associated with a COVID-19 death. This 5-item scale, which was based on 831 adults who lost someone to COVID-19, demonstrated solid reliability (αs = 0.86), factorial validity (PCA and CFA support), and construct validity with strong correlations with suicidal ideation and substance use coping. The PGS measures COVID-19 grief equivalently across demographic groups, and discriminates well between persons with and without dysfunctional grief using an optimized cut score of ≥ 7 (87% sensitivity and 71% specificity). An alarming 66% of the sample scored in the clinical range. The PGS also demonstrates incremental validity by explaining 18% additional variance in functional impairment due to a COVID-19 loss beyond measures of depression and generalized anxiety. These results support the PGS as an efficient and valid screening tool for clinical research and practice during a pandemic.

摘要

数以百万计的人为失去因 COVID-19 死亡的人而悲痛。然而，还没有开发出筛选工具来识别在大流行期间可能患有功能失调性悲伤的人。因此，本研究的目的是开发和评估大流行悲伤量表 (PGS) 的特性，这是一种简短的心理健康筛查，用于识别与 COVID-19 死亡相关的功能失调性悲伤的可能病例。这个 5 项量表基于 831 名因 COVID-19 失去亲人的成年人，展示了可靠的可靠性（αs = 0.86）、因子效度（PCA 和 CFA 支持）以及与自杀意念和物质使用密切相关的结构效度应对。PGS 对不同人口群体的 COVID-19 悲伤程度进行同等衡量，并且使用 ≥ 7 的优化分数（87% 的敏感性和 71% 的特异性）很好地区分有和没有功能失调性悲伤的人。令人震惊的 66% 的样本在临床范围内得分。PGS 还通过解释由于 COVID-19 损失超出抑郁和广泛性焦虑的衡量标准而导致功能障碍的 18% 额外变化，从而证明了增量有效性。这些结果支持 PGS 作为大流行期间临床研究和实践的有效和有效的筛选工具。