Depression (economics)

Social support

Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale

Clinical psychology

Cronbach's alpha

Psychiatry

Macroeconomics

Psychology

Concurrent validity

Economics

Geography

Psychometrics

Scale (ratio)

Anxiety

Cartography

Internal consistency

Medicine

Social psychology

The Malaysian journal of psychiatry

Background: null Several researchers have shown that the type of social support available to individuals can predict their mental wellbeing. Many standard measures of social support abound in Euro-American societies but none has been validated for use in Nigeria. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the internal consistency and concurrent validity of Oslo 3-item Social Support (OSS-3) scale in a Nigerian population. null null Methods: null The study was conducted among Clinical students of Bayero University Medical School (N=70). The Oslo 3-item Social Support (OSS-3) scale and the depression sub-scale of the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) were administered to each of the participants. The HADS scores were compared across different subgroups of OSS-3 and psychometric properties of internal reliability, and concurrent and discriminate validities were assessed using SPSS version 16. null null Results: null The participants were between 18 and 34 years of age with mean O3SS score of 11.70. Females had (11.95) higher mean scores than males (11.58). The internal consistency of OSS-3 was low with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.50. The concurrent validity of OSS-3 with the depression sub-scale of Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) was low but significant and inversely related (r = -0.3; p = 0.011). The discriminate validity was good and was shown by the significant difference between mean OSS-3 of HADS-depression sub-scale cases compared to non-cases (t-test = 6.710; p = <0.0001). null null Conclusion: null We concluded that the OSS-3 is a potential measuring scale useful in determining range of social support available in these Nigerians. null null Please click PDF below to download the full paper...

Psychometric Properties of the 3-Item Oslo Social Support Scale among Clinical Students of Bayero University Kano, Nigeria