Psychometric property study of the posttraumatic stress disorder checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) in Chinese healthcare workers during the outbreak of corona virus disease 2019

BACKGROUND: Previous studies about the reliability and validity of the updated PCL version for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (PCL-5) have only been evaluated in certain samples of the population, which lacks in the sample of Healthcare Workers. Our study focused on the factor structure, reliability and validity of the PCL-5 among Chinese Healthcare Workers during the Outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019. METHODS: We conducted an online survey of frontline healthcare workers using the PCL-5 for PTSD. Total of 212 frontline healthcare providers were included in this study. RESULTS: The findings showed that PCL-5 is a reliable instrument in our sample. The total and subscale scores showed good internal consistency. The convergent and discriminant validity of the PCL-5 were also well demonstrated. Our result showed a better fit with the seven-factor hybrid model compared with other models and supported that the PCL-5 Chinese version can be used as a reliable screening tool to conduct psychological screening for Chinese healthcare workers. LIMITATION: We could not examine other aspects of reliability and validity like test-retest reliability or criterion validity. We didn't use the gold-standard structured interview for PTSD in our study. Besides, most of our samples were young people who had access to the internet. Not all professional levels and seniorities were presented because our sample had a lower mean income and educational level. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that the Chinese PCL-5 has good validity and reliability in frontline healthcare workers during the outbreak.