Validity and reliability of a Spanish version of the Standardised Assessment of Personality-Abbreviated Scale (SAPAS) for personality disorder screening in community mental health settings

Abstract

Backgrounds and objectivesPersonality disorders (PDs) are an essential public health problem being frequently underdiagnosed in the mental health (MH) services. MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study performed in patients attending a community mental health care out-patient clinic. The Standardised Assessment of Personality-Abbreviated Scale (SAPAS) was administered to 59 consecutively agreeing to take part. SAPAS factorial structure was analyzed utilizing principal component analysis with calculation of Cronbach's α to check for internal consistency. Subsequently, SAPAS criterion validity was established comparing it with the Spanish version of the International Personality Disorder Examination (IPDE) by performing a ROC curve to determine sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for different cut-off points. Finally, correlations were estimated between the SAPAS scores and dimensional scores for the different IPDE PD types. ResultsThree factors were achieved, each one closely related to the three DSM-5 PD groups (A–C) explaining 64.1% of total variance in the model. SAPAS internal consistency measured with Cronbach's α was 0.66. The area under the curve (AUC) was found to be 0.89. A cut-off point of 5 showed 84% sensitivity and 79% specificity, correctly classifying 81.5% of the individuals. ConclusionsSAPAS is a valid and reliable PD screening instrument in patients attending community mental health settings.