The Sydney Laval Universities Gambling Screen: Preliminary data (original) (raw)
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Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2016
Background and aims: The aim of this study was to test the screening properties of several combinations of items from gambling scales, in order to harmonize screening of gambling problems in epidemiological surveys. The objective was to propose two brief screening tools (three items or less) for a use in interviews and self-administered questionnaires. Methods: We tested the screening properties of combinations of items from several gambling scales, in a sample of 425 gamblers (301 non-problem gamblers and 124 disordered gamblers). Items tested included interview-based items (Pathological Gambling section of the DSM-IV, lifetime history of problem gambling, monthly expenses in gambling, and abstinence of 1 month or more) and self-report items (South Oaks Gambling Screen, Gambling Attitudes, and Beliefs Survey). The gold standard used was the diagnosis of a gambling disorder according to the DSM-5. Results: Two versions of the Rapid Screener for Problem Gambling (RSPG) were developed: the RSPG-Interview (RSPG-I), being composed of two interview items (increasing bets and loss of control), and the RSPG-Self-Assessment (RSPG-SA), being composed of three self-report items (chasing, guiltiness, and perceived inability to stop). Discussion and conclusions: We recommend using the RSPG-SA/I for screening problem gambling in epidemiological surveys, with the version adapted for each purpose (RSPG-I for interview-based surveys and RSPG-SA for self-administered surveys). This first triage of potential problem gamblers must be supplemented by further assessment, as it may overestimate the proportion of problem gamblers. However, a first triage has the great advantage of saving time and energy in large-scale screening for problem gambling.
Is the SOGS an Accurate Measure of Pathological Gambling Among Children, Adolescents and Adults
Journal of Gambling Studies, 2000
The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) is widely used to assess the prevalence of pathological gambling. For a variety of reasons, this instrument may not provide an accurate rate of the prevalence of pathological gambling. In this paper, one source of error in data provided by the SOGS is investigated. It is argued that individuals may not fully understand the meaning of some items, and that clarification of the meaning of misunderstood items may in some cases lead to a changed score on the scale. The present study evaluates respondents' understanding of the SOGS items. The results from three studies are reported, each using a different sample: grade school children, adolescents and adults. It was hypothesised that (1) participants would not understand some items of the SOGS, (2) problem gamblers and probable pathological gamblers would be more inclined to interpret items incorrectly than would non-problem gamblers and, (3) consistent with the first two hypotheses, clarification of items would decrease the number of participants identified as problem gamblers or probable pathological gamblers. The data obtained supported hypotheses 1 and 3. Furthermore, hypothesis 2 was supported for grade school children, but not for adolescents or adults. These results are consistent with recent literature on endorsement and acquiescence phenomena, and have implications for prevalence studies of probable pathological gambling.
The Victorian Gambling Screen: Reliability and Validation in a Clinical Population
Journal of Gambling Studies, 2010
There is a need to establish reliability and the various forms of validity in all measures in order to feel confident in the use of such tools across a wide diversity of settings. The aim of this study is to describe the reliability and validity of the Victorian Gambling Screen (VGS) and in particular one of the sub-scales (Harm to Self-HS) in a specialist problem gambling treatment service in Adelaide, Australia. Sixty-seven consecutive gamblers were assessed using a previously validated clinical interview and the VGS (Ben-Tovim et al., The Victorian Gambling Screen: project report. Victorian Research Panel, Melbourne, 2001). The internal consistency of the combined VGS scales had a Cronbach's alpha of .85 with the HS scale .89. There was satisfactory evidence of convergent validity which included moderate correlations with another measure of gambling-the South Oaks Gambling Screen. There were also moderate correlations with other measures of psychopathology. Finally, how the VGS may best be used in clinical settings is discussed. Keywords Gambling measurement Á Victorian Gambling Screen Á Problem gambling Á Treatment Background The ability to describe and measure gamblers who are experiencing difficulty has challenged researchers over many years, resulting in numerous terms including; pathological, compulsive, addictive, problem and excessive gambling. There are many tools which purport to screen for and/or diagnose problem gambling. The most well known of which is the South Oaks Gambling Screen-SOGS (Lesieur and Blume 1987) and measures based
Psychiatric Measures of Gambling Problems in the General Population: A Reconsideration
Gambling behavior is pervasive, apparently growing, and of methodological and substantive interest to economists. We examine the manner in which the population prevalence of disordered gambling has been estimated. General population surveys have deepened our knowledge of the population prevalence of gambling disorders, as well as the manner in which gambling disorder is associated with other mental health problems. However, we identify a fundamental bias in the manner in which these surveys have been used to draw inferences about the general population prevalence of gambling problems, due to a behavioral response to seemingly innocuous " trigger, " " gateway " or " diagnostic stem " questions in the design of surveys. Formal modeling of the latent sample selection behavior generated by these trigger questions leads to dramatically different inferences about population prevalence and comorbidities with other psychiatric disorders. The population prevalence of problem or pathological gambling in the United States is inferred to be 7.7% rather than 1.3% when this behavioral response is ignored. Comorbidities are inferred to be much smaller than the received wisdom, particularly when considering the marginal association with other mental health problems rather than the total association. The issues identified here apply, in principle, to every psychiatric disorder covered by these surveys, and not just gambling disorder. We discuss ways in which these behavioral biases can be mitigated in future surveys. †
International Gambling Studies, 2010
Data from the 2007 British Gambling Prevalence Survey were used to examine the psychometric properties of the two problem gambling scales used in the survey: the Canadian Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) and a DSM-IV-based scale. Analysis was based on those who reported any gambling in the past 12 months (between 5483 and 5528 participants for most analyses). The PGSI gave evidence of high internal reliability, uni-dimensionality, and good item-response characteristics. Several PGSI items showed ...
The “Pathological Gambling and Epidemiology” (PAGE) study program: design and fieldwork
International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 2015
The German federal states initiated the "Pathological Gambling and Epidemiology" (PAGE) program to evaluate the public health relevance of pathological gambling. The aim of PAGE was to estimate the prevalence of pathological gambling and cover the heterogenic presentation in the population with respect to comorbid substance use and mental disorders, risk and protective factors, course aspects, treatment utilization, triggering and maintenance factors of remission, and biological markers. This paper describes the methodological details of the study and reports basic prevalence data. Two sampling frames (landline and mobile telephone numbers) were used to generate a random sample from the general population consisting of 15,023 individuals (ages 14 to 64) completing a telephone interview. Additionally, high-risk populations have been approached in gambling locations, via media announcements, outpatient addiction services, debt counselors, probation assistants, self-help groups and specialized inpatient treatment facilities. The assessment included two steps: (1) a diagnostic interview comprising the gambling section of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) for case finding;
In 2005 the Northern Territory of Australia conducted its first population-based gambling and problem-gambling prevalence survey, administering both the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) and the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI) to the same sample of respondents. Using a sub-sample of regular gamblers (n=361), the respective problem gambling screens were subject to psychometric testing that included dimensionality, internal consistency, external validity, classification validity and screen order effects. Analyses were conducted for all regular gamblers stratified by gender. The CPGI produced a significantly lower prevalence estimate than the SOGS as well as lower rates of false-positives as measured against external criteria. Consistent with other studies, dimensionality analysis revealed a multi-dimensional factor structure for the SOGS and a single dimension for the CPGI. The CPGI displayed stronger correlations with external criteria and stronger internal consistency than th...
DSM-IV pathological gambling in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication
Psychological Medicine, 2008
BackgroundLittle is known about the prevalence or correlates of DSM-IV pathological gambling (PG).MethodData from the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), a nationally representative US household survey, were used to assess lifetime gambling symptoms and PG along with other DSM-IV disorders. Age of onset (AOO) of each lifetime disorder was assessed retrospectively. AOO reports were used to study associations between temporally primary disorders and the subsequent risk of secondary disorders.ResultsMost respondents (78.4%) reported lifetime gambling. Lifetime problem gambling (at least one Criterion A symptom of PG) (2.3%) and PG (0.6%) were much less common. PG was significantly associated with being young, male, and Non-Hispanic Black. People with PG reported first gambling significantly earlier than non-problem gamblers (mean age 16.7 v. 23.9 years, z=12.7, p<0.001), with gambling problems typically beginning during the mid-20s and persisting for an average of 9....
Validation of a short screen for gambling related harm
It is common for jurisdictions tasked with minimising gambling-related harm to conduct problem gambling prevalence studies for the purpose of monitoring the impact of gambling to the community. However, given that both public health theory and empirical findings suggest that harms can occur without individuals satisfying clinical criteria of addiction, there is a recognized conceptual disconnect between the prevalence of clinical problem gamblers, and aggregate harm to the community. Starting with an initial item pool of 72 specific harms caused by problematic gambling, our aim was to develop a short gambling harms scale (SGHS) to screen for the presence and degree of harm caused by gambling. An Internet panel of 1524 individuals who had gambled in the last year completed a 72-item checklist, along with the Personal Wellbeing Index, the PGSI, and other measures. We selected 10 items for the SGHS, with the goals of maximising sensitivity and construct coverage. Psychometric analysis suggests very strong reliability, homogeneity and unidimensionality. Non-zero responses on the SGHS were associated with a large decrease in personal wellbeing, with wellbeing decreasing linearly with the number of harms indicated. We conclude that weighted SGHS scores can be aggregated at the population level to yield a sensitive and valid measure of gambling harm.
Improving the Psychometric Properties of the Problem Gambling Severity Index
2010
Statistical methods used in this study included: exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Rasch modeling, differential item functioning analysis, test-retest reliability, validation of the four PGSI gambler subtypes, and regression modeling to explore the development of statistical weights. We also conducted an opinion survey of 142 experts in the field of gambling from Canada and other countries. The main findings are: