The Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS) is one of the most used and empirically supported suicide risk assessment measures for behavioral health clinicians and researchers. However, the 19-item BSS is a relatively long measure and can take 5 to 10 minutes to administer. This study used Item Response Theory (IRT) techniques across two samples of mostly U.S. military service members to first identify (n₁ = 1,899) and then validate (n₂ = 757) an optimized set of the most informative BSS items. Results indicated that Items 1, 2, 4, 6, and 15 provided a similar-shaped test information curve across the same range of the latent trait as the full-length BSS and showed reliable item functioning across participant characteristics. The sum score of these five items showed a linear score linkage with the full-scale score, ρ > 0.87, and was equally as sensitive as the full scale for prospectively predicting near-term suicidal behavior at 74% with a cut score ≥1 (equivalent to full-scale score ≥6). Results are consistent with those from civilian samples. In time- or length-limited assessments, using these five BSS items may improve administration efficiency over the full BSS, while maintaining classification sensitivity.This study suggests that summing Items 1, 2, 4, 6, and 15 of the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS) is an acceptable approach for shortening the full-length measure.

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优化自杀意念的贝克量表：美国军事人员的项目反应理论方法

贝克自杀意念量表 (BSS) 是行为健康临床医生和研究人员使用最广泛且经验支持的自杀风险评估措施之一。但是，包含 19 项的 BSS 是一项相对较长的措施，可能需要 5 到 10 分钟才能完成。这项研究使用项目反应理论 (IRT) 技术对两个主要是美国军人服役人员的样本进行首先识别 ( n ₁  = 1,899)，然后验证 ( n ₂ = 757) 一组优化的信息量最大的 BSS 项目。结果表明，项目 1、2、4、6 和 15 在与全长 BSS 相同的潜在特征范围内提供了形状相似的测试信息曲线，并显示了跨参与者特征的可靠项目功能。这五个项目的总分显示与全面评分呈线性联系，ρ > 0.87，并且与全面评分一样敏感，前瞻性预测近期自杀行为的灵敏度为 74%，切分≥1（相当于满分≥6）。结果与民用样本的结果一致。在时间或长度限制的评估中，使用这五个 BSS 项目可以提高整个 BSS 的管理效率，同时保持分类敏感性。本研究表明，总结项目 1、2、4、6、