Validation and psychometric properties of the Somatic and Psychological HEalth REport (SPHERE) in a young Australian-based population sample using non-parametric item response theory

BACKGROUND: The Somatic and Psychological HEalth REport (SPHERE) is a 34-item self-report questionnaire that assesses symptoms of mental distress and persistent fatigue. As it was developed as a screening instrument for use mainly in primary care-based clinical settings, its validity and psychometric properties have not been studied extensively in population-based samples. METHODS: We used non-parametric Item Response Theory to assess scale validity and item properties of the SPHERE-34 scales, collected through four waves of the Brisbane Longitudinal Twin Study (N = 1707, mean age = 12, 51% females; N = 1273, mean age = 14, 50% females; N = 1513, mean age = 16, 54% females, N = 1263, mean age = 18, 56% females). We estimated the heritability of the new scores, their genetic correlation, and their predictive ability in a sub-sample (N = 1993) who completed the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. RESULTS: After excluding items most responsible for noise, sex or wave bias, the SPHERE-34 questionnaire was reduced to 21 items (SPHERE-21), comprising a 14-item scale for anxiety-depression and a 10-item scale for chronic fatigue (3 items overlapping). These new scores showed high internal consistency (alpha > 0.78), moderate three months reliability (ICC = 0.47–0.58) and item scalability (Hi > 0.23), and were positively correlated (phenotypic correlations r = 0.57–0.70; rG = 0.77–1.00). Heritability estimates ranged from 0.27 to 0.51. In addition, both scores were associated with later DSM-IV diagnoses of MDD, social anxiety and alcohol dependence (OR in 1.23–1.47). Finally, a post-hoc comparison showed that several psychometric properties of the SPHERE-21 were similar to those of the Beck Depression Inventory. CONCLUSIONS: The scales of SPHERE-21 measure valid and comparable constructs across sex and age groups (from 9 to 28 years). SPHERE-21 scores are heritable, genetically correlated and show good predictive ability of mental health in an Australian-based population sample of young people. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-017-1420-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.