Outcome Measure
Kessler Psychological Distress Scale
What it measures?
- Non-specific psychological distress in the past 2 weeks.
Who is it for?
Adults aged 18 years +
Instrument Quality
- The K10 is one of the most broadly used measures in mental health epidemiology, assessment and research. The instrument possesses strong psychometric properties and there is an established correspondence between score severity and the presence of various psychological disorders (Andrews & Slade, 2001)
Structure
- 10 items
- 5-point Likert scale
- Respondents indicate how frequently (1 = "None of the time"; 5 = "All of the time") they have felt a certain way during the past 4 weeks (e.g. "About how often did you feel nervous?")
Scoring instructions
- Sum the responses for all items
| Subscale | Item number |
|---|---|
Full-scale (K10) |
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 |
Score Interpretation
What higher scores mean?
- Higher levels of psychological distress. Epidemiological data representative of national populations suggests that total scores of 20 or more indicate the presence of psychological disorder (Andrews & Slade, 2001)
Identifying risk
A patient may be at risk if they endorse any of the following ‘red flag’ items. Further risk assessment should be undertaken.
| Item number | Item content |
|---|---|
| 4 | About how often did you feel hopeless? |
How to assess symptom severity & change?
| Description | Score Range | |
|---|---|---|
| Low | 10 | |
| Moderate | 16 | |
| High | 22 | |
| Very high | 30 | |
| Maximum | 50 |
Instrument developers
- Kessler, R. C., Andrews, G., Colpe, L. J., Hiripi, E., Mroczek, D. K., Normand, S., Walters, E. E., & Zaslavsky, A. M. (2002). Short screening scales to monitor population prevalences and trends in non-specific psychological distress. Psychological Medicine, 32(6), 959–976. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291702006074
Refrences
Andrews G, Slade T. Interpreting scores on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). Aust N Z J Public Health. 2001 Dec;25(6):494-7. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-842x.2001.tb00310.x. PMID: 11824981. Kwan, B., Rickwood, D. J., & Telford, N. R. (2018). Development and validation of MyLifeTracker: a routine outcome measure for youth mental health. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 67-77. Rickwood, D. J., Mazzer, K. R., Telford, N. R., Parker, A. G., Tanti, C. J., & McGorry, P. D. (2015). Changes in psychological distress and psychosocial functioning in young people visiting headspace centres for mental health problems. Medical journal of Australia, 202(10), 537-542 Merson, F., Newby, J., Shires, A., Millard, M., & Mahoney, A. (2021). The temporal stability of the Kessler psychological distress scale. Australian Psychologist, 56(1), 38-45 Slade T, Grove R, Burgess P. Kessler Psychological Distress Scale: normative data from the 2007 Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2011 Apr;45(4):308-16. doi: 10.3109/00048674.2010.543653. Epub 2011 Feb 21. PMID: 21332432.
Related Outcome Measures
CORE-10
Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation 10
The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation 10 (CORE-10) is a 10-item assessment measure for common...
FFMQ
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire
RAADS-R
Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised
The Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnostic Scale-Revised (RAADS-R) is a 80-item self-report assessment me...
HAI-18
Health Anxiety Inventory-18
The items of the HAI-18 are intended to evaluate health anxiety regardless of physical health stat...
CESD-R
Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale
The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD-R) is a self-report questionnaire des...
AQ-Child
Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children
The AQ-Child aims to assess traits of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children with average intell...
AQ-Adolescent
Autism Spectrum Disorder in Adolescents
The AQ-Adol aims to assess traits of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in adolescents with average inte...
MDQ
Mood Disorder Questionnaire
The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) was developed as a screening measure for bipolar disorder, us...
DUDIT
Drug Use Disorders Identification Test
The Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) is an 11-item self-report assessment measure whi...
ITQ
International Trauma Questionnaire
The ITQ is a self-report measure designed to assess the presence and functional impairment of postt...
IES-R
Impact of Event Scale-Revised
The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) is a tool designed to gauge the presence and severity of s...
ACE-Q
The Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire
The Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACE-Q) is a widely used tool for assessing childho...
MDRS-22
Male Depression Risk Scale
The Male Depression Risk Scale (MDRS) measures the risk of depression in men by assessing externali...
DES-II
Dissociative Experiences Scale-II
The DES-II is the most commonly used measure of dissociation. It measures various types of dissocia...
PSC-17
Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17
The PSC-17 is a screening tool designed to assess a child’s overall psychosocial functioning and i...
PCL-5
PTSD Checklist for DSM-5
The 20 symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, as outlined in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manua...
FAS
Fatigue Assessment Scale
The FAS full-scale assesses symptoms of physical and mental fatigue.
AQ
Autism Spectrum Quotient
The AQ aims to assess traits of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in adults and adolescents with averag...
PDSS-SR
Panic Disorder Severity Scale – Self-Report
The severity of Panic Disorder symptoms during the past week. Specifically, the instrument assesses...
SCAS-P
Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale – Parent
The SCAS-P measures anxiety symptoms in children in the general population through parent report. T...
PSEQ
Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire
The beliefs held by people experiencing chronic pain that they can carry out certain activities even...
PHQ-9
Patient Health Questionnaire 9-Item
Symptoms of Depression over the previous 2 weeks.
RIS
Regensburg Insomnia Scale
Psychological symptoms of insomnia assessing cognitive, emotional and behavioural aspects. The RIS m...
PSWQ
Penn State Worry Questionnaire
The PSWQ assesses pervasive and uncontrollable worry.
TSK-13
Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia 13-Item
Kinesiophobia, defined as “an excessive, irrational, and debilitating fear of physical movement an...
GAD-7
Generalised Anxiety 7-Item
The symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder, as outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual ...
CIA
Clinical Impairment Assessment Questionnaire
The severity of psychosocial impairment due to eating disorder pathology.
AUDIT
Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test
The AUDIT identifies risky or harmful alcohol consumption, as well as alcohol dependence or abuse. ...
OCI-R
Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory – Revised
Symptom severity of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).The OCI-R contains 6 factors representing th...
AAI
Appearance Anxiety Inventory
Cognitive and behavioural symptoms of body image anxiety and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). In part...
K10
Kessler Psychological Distress Scale
Non-specific psychological distress in the past 2 weeks.
SWLS
The Satisfaction With Life Scale
The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) examines the extent to which a person is satisfied with thei...
DASS-21
Depression Anxiety Stress Scales – 21-Item
Three self-report subscales assess the emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress.
CORE-OM
Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation
The CORE-OM aims to capture the ‘core’ of client distress and provide a global index of distres...
BSL-23
Borderline Symptom List
The BSL-23 assesses 23 feelings and experiences that are typically reported by patients with Border...
ASRS
Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale
The ASRS aims to examine Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms in adults consiste...
Severity ranges
The range values and labels (i.e. ‘low’, ‘moderate’, ‘high’, and ‘very high’) are the same as those employed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in national surveys. The ABS website reports that their approach is based on research by the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (Crufad), Andrews and Slade (2001), and Korten (date of publication not provided).
Reliable change and clinically significant improvement
A 7-point raw score change has been identified across at least two studies as being indicative of reliable change. Rickwood et al (2015) obtained this value using using reliability coefficients reported for an Australian normative group (age group, 16–24 years) in the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. Kwan et al (2018) obtained the same RCI employing a sample of young people aged 12–25 years attending headspace centres across Australia for mental health-related issues (N = 41 439). Note that the figure is very close to the the value of the standard deviation reported for a clinical sample (Merson et al., 2021).
Mean
Standard Deviation
Reliability