Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Jun 3, 2020
Date Accepted: Aug 6, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Repeated psychosocial screening of high school students using YouthCHAT: a cohort study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Psychosocial problems are common during adolescence and can have long-lasting effects on health, academic and social functioning. YouthCHAT, an electronic, HEEADSSS-aligned instrument, has recently been demonstrated to be an acceptable and effective school-based psychosocial screener for 13-year old (Year 9) high school students.
Objective:
This study aimed to compare acceptability and detection rates with repeated YouthCHAT screening of high school students when they were aged 13-years (Year 9) and 14-years (Year 10).
Objective:
This study aimed to compare acceptability and detection rates with repeated YouthCHAT screening of high school students when they were aged 13-years (Year 9) and 14-years (Year 10).
Methods:
We invited all Year 10 students to complete YouthCHAT screening in 2018. Rates of positively identified issues were compared between the subset of students screened in both 2017 and 2018. Follow-up rates in 2018 were also investigated to explore the potential referral burden following screening.
Results:
Of 141 eligible Year 10 students, 114 (81%) completed YouthCHAT screening during 2018 and 97 of them (85%) completed it for the second time. Apart from depression which increased, and perceived life stress which decreased, rates of identified issues were broadly similar between 13 and 14-years of age. Repeated screening via YouthCHAT was acceptable to students and time-efficient (mean 6 minutes and 32 seconds) but did not reduce the overall number of individuals with identified issues. Follow-up from positive screens were mostly managed by school-based health services without need for external referral.
Conclusions:
Although further evaluation is needed, our results support the value of YouthCHAT as an acceptable and effective instrument with which to achieve routine identification of psychosocial issues and early intervention within a high school environment. Clinical Trial: The study was registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN12616001243404p and was approved by the New Zealand Northern Region Ethics Committee (16/CEN/137/AM03).
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