A concurrent validational study of the NCHS General Well-Being Schedule.

A comparative analysis of the concurrent validity of several self-report schedules in predicting interviewer's assessment of depressed mood. A concurrent validational study of the NCHS' general well-being schedule. FOREWORD The National Health Survey Act of 1956 provided for the establishment and continuation of National Health Surveys to obtain information about the health status of the population in the United States. Subsequent legislative authority to collect and make available health statistics including data on the determinants of health is contained in Public Law 93-353, Section 306 (par. (b); item (l)). The responsibility for the development and conduct of that program is placed with the National Center for HeaIth Statistics, a research-oriented statistical organization within the Health Resources Administration of the Public Health Service. The Health Examination Survey is one of several different programs employed by the National Center for HeaJth Statistics (NCHS) to accomplish the objectives of the Natiomd Health Survey. It is used to collect data by drawing samples of the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United States and undertakes to characterize the population under study by means of medical, dental, psychological, and nutritional examinations and various tests and measurements. In addition to the data collected by the examining, measuring, and testing procedures, a wide range of other data are collected concerning each of the sample persons examined. Therefore, it is possible to study a variety of potential relationships among the examination findings. Psychological components are included in Health Examination Surveys to provide a more complete assessment of the health and well-being of the U.S. population. They are embedded in an interdisciplinary approach in the study of mental health, psychological relationships with medical and nutritional conditions, growth, development, aging, and other aspects of health. Examination conditions and competing requirements for examination time dictate that each examination component must be specifically designed to fit within these constraints. A long-range effort is underway to develop specific psychological examination procedures within an. overall plan of psychological assessments that can be employed in the Health Examination Surveys. The GeneraJ Well-Being (GWB) schedule was developed in the NCHS and, after pretesting' on 373 adults, was administered to over 6,900 adults as part of the national study of the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey , which had begun in April 1971 and was completed in October 1975. The GWB schedule is a self-report instrument designed to assess selected aspects of self-representations of subjective welI-being and distress. …