Urban Community Residents Research Articles

Survey on Mental Health Status of Urban Community Residents in Xi'an Based on SCL-90 Psychological Scale

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mental health status of 1021 community residents in Xi'an, which provides a scientific basis for understanding the mental health status of urban residents in our country, establishing a psychoanalysis model and promoting residents' health. The community residents of 8 community health service centers in Xincheng District of Xi'an City were used as the research object from June 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016, using the SCL-90 psychological scale for their psychological status measuring. The result is that the scores of SCL-90 for community residents in Xi'an are between 1.24 and 1.67. There were significant differences between male and female in other factors except for hostility (t=1.111, P=0.267), phobic-anxiety (t=1.658, P=0.098) and psychotic (t=0.359, P=0.025), interpersonal relationship (t=5.132, P=0.000), depression (P<0.05), and women's scores were higher than men's score (t=2.730, P=0.006). The scores of female anxiety (t=2.722, P=0.007) and psychotic (t=3.302, P=0.001) in 2016 were higher than those in the year of 1986;  the study showed that the highest score was between the ages of 18 and 44 (youth group). This study can reflect the mental health of urban residents in Xi’an. The study found that the general mental health of residents in China remains steady. The concrete manifestations of women’s psychological health problems are increasingly prominent, and there is an upward trend in obsessive-compulsive disorder, interpersonal relationship and psychosis. The Chinese residents have the most severe mental health problems between the ages of 18 and 44, especially in the age group of 30-39.

Emergency Evacuation Simulation and Management Optimization in Urban Residential Communities

Timely and secure evacuation of residents in communities is of great importance during unexpected disasters or emergency events. This study proposes a framework of evacuation simulation for optimizing emergency management in urban residential communities. Compared to traditional methods, the advantage of our framework lies in three aspects: (1) The method highlights easy-crowded areas in both indoor and outdoor evacuations. (2) Family behaviors are considered and implemented in evacuations. (3) Detailed measures on management optimization are spatially mapped based on a multi-level analysis and the comparison of evacuation simulation results in different scenarios. A case study in Changhongfang residential community, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China, was conducted to demonstrate the method feasibility. Simulation results have exposed potential evacuation problems in the community. A series of detailed recommended measures have been generated. These measures can help to create better emergency management for the community.

Evacuation Simulation and Emergency Management Optimization in Urban Residential Communities

Urban residential communities usually have high density of residents. Timely and securely evacuation of residents in communities is of great importance during unexpected disasters or emergency events. To conduct better evacuation process in residential communities, this paper proposes a new framework of evacuation simulation and emergency management optimization. Compared with the traditional methods, the advantage of the proposed method lies into three aspects: (1) The new method highlights the easy-crowded areas in both indoor and outdoor evacuation. (2) Family behaviors are considered in evacuation. (3) Detailed emergency management optimization measures are spatially described on maps based on the analysis of the evacuation simulation results. A case study in Changhongfang Residential Community, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China was conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.

Prevalence of Hypertension and Knowledge of Its Risk Behaviors among Residents of Rural and Urban Communities in Rivers State, Nigeria

Prevalence of Hypertension and Knowledge of Its Risk Behaviors among Residents of Rural and Urban Communities in Rivers State, Nigeria

Deliberation and governance in Chinese middle-class neighborhoods

AbstractThis paper examines the mechanisms of deliberation and conflict resolution in Chinese urban middle-class residential communities. Along with the rise of private home ownership and urban middle-class residential estates, disputes and conflicts have risen between the residents, resident self-elected organization (homeowner associations), real estate developer and property management companies, and the local government. Through the lens of deliberation in middle-class neighborhoods, this paper analyzes (1) how and to what extent deliberation is introduced and employed as an instrumental tool by the local government to achieve their goal of maintaining social stability. (2) In what ways and to what extent deliberation has served as part of governance strategies. And (3) whether and how the state and non-state actors interact with each other during this process to produce more democratic governance under the Party-state's authoritarian rule. This paper adopts a systemic approach to examine authoritarian deliberation as a neighborhood governance strategy. The findings suggest that (1) deliberation has become an instrumental tool for conflict resolution introduced by the local government to middle-class neighborhoods. Residents’ Committees, on behalf of the state, has become key coordinator and mediator during the deliberation process. (2) The systemic approach of authoritarian deliberation includes a mix of deliberative elements and other features of political culture, traditions, strategies, and institutions. The dynamic interactions between deliberation and authoritarianism, between deliberative and non-deliberative features, and between formal deliberative meetings and informal deliberative talks all contribute to a functional deliberative system.

Retail Sprawl in Post-Soviet Urban Residential Communities: Case Studies of Saint-Petersburg and Vilnius

Abstract Since the beginning of the 1990s, Soviet urban residential communities have experienced rapid inflows of new urban functions. In this research project, two post-Soviet urban areas - Vilnius and St. Petersburg - are examined to indicate contrasting development paths over the last 30 years. The term “retail sprawl” describes correctly one of the important processes which have reshaped the former socialist microdistricts. We used data from the years 1987-1989, the last years of the socialist economy, and 2016 for 36 comparable research areas. By 2016 the structure of these formerly monofunctional areas made them functionally very similar to that of the urban core, including them in the intra-urban circulation of goods and capital, redirecting flows and making the city centre’s service burden much lighter. The results of the study provide a controversial contribution to the virtual discussion on universalism vs. uniqueness in post-socialist urban development. On the one hand, irrespective of contrasting “path-dependent” impacts, the structural results of retail development turned out to be generally identical in the studied cities at present, as well as in a prototypical North-American city 25 years ago. On the other hand, we found very pronounced differences compared to international patterns in morphological outcomes.

Conducting community‐based participatory research in an urban Malaysian community: Lessons learned and challenges in establishing partnerships

AbstractThis paper presents the process of how partnerships are established between an urban residential community and an academic institution in Malaysia by employing community‐based participatory research, which involves researchers, community members, and organizational representatives as coresearchers. The research process encompasses colearning, power sharing, and coconstructing of knowledge, with the community members driving the research direction. The research paradigm is grounded on conducting research with the community. This paper highlights the experience and lessons learned while applying the principles of community‐based participatory research that promotes social participation of older persons living in a residential community. Two pertinent challenges surface in the research process. The first challenge involves the complexity noted in the gap between the emancipation of community‐based participatory research and the hierarchical social structure of the society. The second challenge is the prevalence of unspoken yet subtle domination that undermines the local cultural values affecting the process of coconstructing knowledge with the community. Recommendations for addressing these challenges include future partnerships with other Malaysian communities as well as cross‐border research partnerships.

Cancer screening service utilization and willingness-to-pay of urban populations in China: a cross-sectional survey from potential service demander's perspective

Objective: To explore the sustainability of cancer screening strategy from potential demander's perspective in Chinese country, we conducted a study on the use of cancer screening services and willingness-to-pay among the urban community residents. All the participants of this study had not been on the Cancer Screening Program in Urban China (CanSPUC) or any other national level cancer screening projects. Methods: Target communities and populations were selected from the 16 project provinces in China which were on the program between 2014 and 2015, by using the multi-center cross-sectional convenience sampling method. Chi-square was used to compare the rates on the utilization of service and willingness-to-pay across the different subgroups. Logistic progression was conducted to examine factors that associated with the service utilization and willingness-to-pay. Results: A total of 16 394 participants were included in this study. Among them, 12.1% (1 984/16 394) had ever been on a cancer screening program. Populations with following characteristics as: being elderly (60-69 years, OR=1.27, 95% CI: 1.13-1.43), female (male, OR= 0.56, 95%CI: 0.50-0.62), having had higher education (high school/specialized secondary school, OR= 1.51, 95%CI: 1.35-1.70; college or over, OR=2.10, 95%CI: 1.36-3.25), working for public (OR=2.85, 95% CI: 2.26-3.59), enterprises or self-employed agencies (OR=1.32, 95% CI: 1.06-1.64), having higher income (60 000-150 000 Chinese Yuan, OR=1.55, 95%CI: 1.39-1.73; ≥150 000 Chinese Yuan, OR=2.57, 95% CI: 2.09-3.15), under basic medical insurance programs for urban employees/for government servants'(OR=1.15, 95% CI: 1.01-1.32), on basic medical insurance set for urban residents'/on commercial medical insurance programs etc. (OR=1.01, 95%CI: 0.84-1.22), were in favor of the services. When neglecting the fee for charge, 65.8% (10 795/16 394) of the participants said that they could accept the cancer screening program, particularly in those who had already been on the screening program (P<0.05). 61.2% (10 038/16 392) of all the participants showed the willingness-topay for a long-term packaging screening services, particularly in those who were relatively younger (60-69 years, OR=0.80, 95%CI: 0.74-0.87), working for public (OR=1.76, 95%CI: 1.56-1.98) or enterprise sectors or self-employed households (OR=1.32, 95%CI: 1.18-1.47), having higher income (60 000-150 000 Chinese Yuan, OR=1.51, 95%CI: 1.40-1.63; ≥150 000 Chinese Yuan,OR= 1.95, 95% CI: 1.60-2.38), utilized screening services (OR=2.18, 95% CI: 1.94-2.46). Conclusions: The rate of using the cancer screening services should be improved. Factors including age, gender, education, occupation, income and insurance appeared as major factors related to the use of cancer screening services. Willingness-to-pay seemed relatively high, but the amount of payment they could afford was limited. Factors including age, occupation, income and insurance appeared as major factors to the willingness-to-pay.

Antihypertensive Medication Use: Implications for Inequities in Cardiovascular Risk and Opportunities for Intervention.

Antihypertensive medication use protects against adverse health effects of hyper-tension. Residents of low-income urban communities are disproportionately Black and Latino, and may experience heightened cardiovascular health risks due to reduced medication use. We estimate the odds of antihypertensive medication use by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic position. Data are from the Healthy Environments Partnership Community Survey, restricted to 377 hypertensive participants. Antihypertensive medication use was defined as people with hypertension who were taking antihypertensive medication. Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic differences in medication use were examined using multivariate logistic regression. Odds of antihypertensive medication use were lower for people with incomes 1.00-1.99 times the poverty level (OR=0.75, p=.05) compared with those ≥2.00 times poverty, and for Latinos (OR=0.48, p&lt;.01) and Whites (OR=0.50, p&lt;.01) compared with Blacks. Findings suggest a need to improve hypertension screening and treatment for residents of low-to moderate-income urban communities, with attention to subgroups who may have limited health care access.

Neighborhood Aged Care and Local Governance in Urban China

AbstractSince 2011 China’s new nationwide system of neighborhood aged care has invited nonstate organizations to carry out aged care provision in urban residential communities. This article examine...

Association between social capital and quality of life among urban residents in less developed cities of western China: A cross-sectional study.

China has experienced rapid urbanization over the past several decades. Social capital is considered a vital human resource, and quality of life (QoL) is an important measure of human health embedded in a physical, mental, and social context. No studies have reported on the association between social capital and QoL in Chinese urban residents. We performed a cross-sectional study to investigate social capital in urban community residents of West China, and its relationship with QoL.Our study was carried out between June and July of 2015. A total of 1136 households were surveyed. The Chinese-translated version of the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) and social capital questionnaire were used to evaluate people's QoL and social capital. Associations between QoL and social capital were evaluated by 3 logistic regression analyses.A total of 1136 adult participants aged 18 years and older completed the questionnaire. Young residents were more likely to have lower second (SC2), third (SC3), and fourth (SC4) dimensions of social capital. Migrants and residents with higher education levels and high incomes showed lower SC1 and SC2 relative to other participants, and employed residents had relatively low SC1. Unmarried residents had lower SC2 and SC3. Without adjustment for potential confounding factors, participants with higher SC2 had higher average scores for mental components (MCS) of QoL [odds ratio (OR) = 1.48, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 1.09-2.02], and the same was seen for SC3 (OR = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.24-2.34). After adjusting for socioeconomic status (SES) and risk factors, SC2 and SC3 were still significantly associated with MCS. Social capital was not significantly associated with physical components of QoL in any of the 3 logistic regression models.In conclusion, social capital is related to MCS of QoL, and increasing it may be an effective way to promote health.

Barriers to Physical and Mental Health: Understanding the Intersecting Needs of Cambodian and Latino Residents in Urban Communities.

A community needs assessment was conducted to explore barriers and facilitators to good physical and mental health among Cambodian and Latino residents in an urban community in Southern California. Thirty-six Cambodians and 29 Latinos completed the interviewer-facilitated survey administered door-to-door, and another 20 Cambodian and 18 Latino residents participated in focus groups. Crime, limited knowledge of positive health behaviors, lack of access to affordable healthcare, and lack of access to safe spaces for recreational activities were identified as threats to good health. Participant recommendations to support health in the community included increasing police presence to improve safety and reduce violence, and increasing opportunities/locations for physical exercise. While differences between Cambodian and Latino residents exist, the identified threats and suggested improvements were primarily associated with environmental factors, highlighting the need for systems level approaches that recognize the relationship between community context and health.

Spatial concentration patterns of South Asian low-skilled immigrants in Oman: A spatial analysis of residential geographies

Oman is a major recipient of South Asian labor immigrants, and correspondingly, the demographic statistics reveal that the non-Omani populations primarily are constituted of the Asians. This research examines whether the largest immigrant groups (Indian, Bangladesh, Pakistani and Sri Lankan) in Oman form residential clusters according to their work skills (higher and lower skills). The residential geographies of South Asian workers at the subnational administrative boundaries have been investigated in the current study. Empirically, the study employs the use of Location Quotients (LQ) and Entropy Index within the GIS environment to spatially analyze the immigrant residential distributions based on their work skills. Interestingly, the findings of this research confirm the primary influence of geography on the residential patterns of the low-skilled immigrants. Initially, Al-Batnah governorates constituted the main destinations of low-skilled Bangladeshis. Further, the research also highlights significant clusters of Indian and Pakistani high-skilled immigrants in urban residential communities within the Muscat governorate. In addition, the South Asian are found to be a relatively constant stream of immigrants to inhabit the Omani urban areas, with employments in various public and private economic sectors (e.g. educational, health, manufacturing, finance, business etc.). This concentration pattern of low skilled immigrants is attributable to the need to labor shortages of native populations in certain jobs. The research results also indicate that the rural and suburban communities of Al-Batnah coastal plain not only have a greater number of low skilled immigrants but also display equitable distributions of the four South Asian groups in the residential settlements. For policy makers, it is imperative to understand the spatial patterns of low and high-skilled immigrants in Oman, which exert several geographic, economic, social and demographic implications. The significant role of immigration in development necessitates the identification of the predominant destinations for immigrants. It has been observed that the immigrants are crucial to several sectors of Omani urban economy, and urban areas with a large number of immigrants are more likely to grow and expand faster. In addition, the immigrants’ laborers offer potential economic benefits to the host country, which include fostering entrepreneurial activities, small businesses and reducing wages, especially in unskilled jobs. Despite the negative impacts of immigration (e.g. losing national cultural and creating socio-spatial segregation), the diverse and distinctive locational patterns of immigrant groups in Oman contribute crucially to the socioeconomic development and immigration policy. Yet understanding of the spatial dynamics of immigration in structuring the Omani regions and its influences remains very limited. Thus, further research accounting for the different spatial and attribute ancillary data is necessitated.

A novel stochastic modeling method to simulate cooling loads in residential districts

District cooling systems are widely used in urban residential communities in China. Most of such systems are oversized, which leads to wasted investment, low operational efficiency and, thus, waste of energy. The accurate prediction of district cooling loads that can support the rightsizing of cooling plant equipment remains a challenge. This study develops a novel stochastic modeling method that consists of (1) six prototype house models representing most apartments in a district, (2) occupant behavior models of residential buildings reflecting their spatial and temporal diversity as well as their complexity based on a large-scale residential survey in China, and (3) a stochastic sampling process to represent all apartments and occupants in the district. The stochastic method was applied to a case study using the Designer’s Simulation Toolkit (DeST) to simulate the cooling loads of a residential district in Wuhan, China. The simulation results agreed well with the measured data based on five performance metrics representing the aggregated cooling consumption, the peak cooling loads, the spatial load distribution, the temporal load distribution and the load profiles. Two prevalent simulation methods were also employed to simulate the district cooling loads. The results showed that oversimplified assumptions about occupant behavior could lead to significant overestimation of the peak cooling load and the total cooling loads in the district. Future work will aim to simplify the workflow and data requirements of the stochastic method for its application, and to explore its use in predicting district heating loads and in commercial or mixed-use districts.

Prevalence of Cardiovascular risk factors among the residents of urban community of Kathmandu municipality

Background and Aims: The prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases is globally increasing leading to the increase in mortality and morbidity due to cardiovascular diseases. The objective of this study is to assess the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among the residents of urban community of Kathmandu municipality.Methods: By using simple random sampling method, we selected 130 participants aged 18 years or above, from the voters list of ward no.22 of Kathmandu. Male participants aged less than 45 and female participants aged less than 55 were grouped as young age group which included total of 80 (61.5%) participants and rest were grouped as old age group. All the participants gave the informed consent. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software version 20.Results: The mean age of the participants was 46.6 years with 53.8% male. Insufficient physical activity (68.5%), high waist circumference (67.7%) were the two most prevalent risk factors followed by obesity (59.2%), hypertension (37.7%), tobacco consumption (37.5%), dyslipidemia (22.3%) and diabetes (16.9%) in overall population. Tobacco consumption were more prevalent in male participants of both younger and older age groups whereas high waist circumference was prevalent in female participants of both age group.Conclusion: Our study showed high prevalence of insufficient physical activity, high waist circumference, obesity, hypertension and tobacco use among urban population of Kathmandu, suggesting possibility of higher incidence of cardiovascular disease in future, pointing towards the need of aggressive preventive strategy to prevent epidemic of cardiovascular disease.Nepalese Heart Journal 2017; 14(1): 3-7

Personal characteristics, cooking at home and shopping frequency influence consumption.

This study examines how the consumption of fruits and vegetables is affected by home cooking habits and shopping patterns, including distance to patronized stores and frequency of shopping, in two low-income predominantly African American urban neighborhoods in New Orleans, Louisiana.In-person interviews were conducted in 2013 with 901 adult residents who identified themselves as the primary household shopper. Respondents were asked where and how often they shopped and answered a food frequency questionnaire. Addresses were geocoded and distances to the stores where respondents shopped were calculated. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between food consumption and personal factors, neighborhood factors and shopping habits.Consumption of daily servings of fresh produce increased by 3% for each additional trip to a grocery store, by 76% for shopping at a farmer's market, and by 38% for preparing food at home. Each additional trip to a convenience store increased the frequency of consumption of chips, candy and pastries by 3%. The distance from residence to the type of store patronized was not associated with consumption of produce or chips, candy or pastries.Shopping at full-service grocery stores, farmer's markets and cooking at home were positively associated with the consumption of fresh produce while shopping at convenience stores was associated with increased consumption of chips, candy and pastries. These findings are useful for designing programmatic interventions to increase fresh fruit and vegetable consumption among residents in low-income urban communities.

Multiple Source Sustainable Hybrid Micro-grid for Urban Communities: A Case Study in UAE

Abstract Increasing pollution and depleting resources continue to be a growing problem to the environment and sustainability. Renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind and biofuel provide the advantage of scalability from small to very large applications. Integration of renewable energy to urban communities poses technical, economic, and logistic challenges. In this work we consider implementing a micro-grid powered by renewable energy sources to substitute a fraction of energy usage of an urban residential community in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The community is considered to have integrated photo-voltaic rooftop solar, horizontal axis wind turbine and waste cooking oil converted biodiesel power plant systems. This micro-grid system was evaluated for its technical and economic feasibility. Result showed that higher power share from the micro-grid is neither practically nor economically feasible due to low cost of electricity. Integrating wind energy also resulted in poor feasibility because the area is characterized with poor wind energy potential. The best hybrid system for such a community would be one powered by solar and biodiesel.

Improving mental health through the regeneration of deprived neighbourhoods: a prospective controlled quasi-experimental study

BackgroundPolicy makers often target deprived neighbourhoods for regeneration with the expectation that population health will improve, since housing and neighbourhoods of low quality, as well as the social and economic determinants of poor health, are concentrated in the most deprived areas. Our aim was to examine the effects of Communities First, a Welsh Assembly Government community-led programme of neighbourhood regeneration targeted at the 100 most deprived electoral wards in Wales on mental health. MethodsInformation on Communities First regeneration activities in 35 intervention lower super output areas (LSOAs) (n=4197) and 75 control LSOAs (6695) were linked to data from the eCATALyST study, a prospective cohort study, in 2001 (before regeneration) and 2008 (after regeneration) within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Communities First was delivered through multiagency partnership boards in all 22 local authorities. Boards worked with residents to identify and secure funding for regeneration activities. The primary outcome was the change in Mental Health Inventory (MHI) score (a population-based measure of anxiety and depressive symptoms) between 2001 and 2008 recorded in eCATALyST. We examined the changes in mental health in intervention LSOAs compared with control LSOAs using propensity score matching (1:1 ratio) to balance the level of socioeconomic disadvantage across groups. Sensitivity analysis examined the impact of length of residence in an intervention area and six types of regeneration activity. Findings1500 regeneration projects were funded from 2001 to 2008. Before regeneration, mental health was worse in the intervention than in the control group (mean MHI score 66·6, SD 22·3 vs 71·0, SD 20·8). After propensity score matching, regeneration was associated with an improvement in the mental health of intervention compared with control group residents (β=1·54, 95% CI 0·50–2·59), suggesting that inequalities in mental health narrowed. We found evidence of a dose–response association between length of residence and improvements in mental health (ptrend=0·05). We could not attribute improvements to any one type of regeneration activity. InterpretationTargeted regeneration directed by the residents of deprived urban communities can help reduce inequalities in mental health. FundingThis study was funded by a grant from the National Institute for Social Care and Health Research (RFS-12-05) and undertaken with the support of the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (MR/KO232331/1) and the Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research.

Outdoor thermal comfort and activities in the urban residential community in a humid subtropical area of China

A comfortable thermal environment is extremely important for the enjoyment of outdoor spaces. The relationship among microclimate, thermal sensation, and human behavior is expected to provide guidelines and implications for outdoor space design and planning practice. Given that, this study aimed at a better understanding of outdoor thermal comfort and activities in the residential community in a humid subtropical area of China. This study counted the number of people staying at the outdoor space, recorded physical measurements, and collected questionnaire surveys to determine the thermal comfort and activities of the outdoor space. Analysis results confirmed that the thermal experience and expectation existed and changed people’s perceptions about the outdoor thermal environment in different seasons. The 90% acceptable physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) range affected by the local climate and thermal adaptation was 18.1–31.1°C. The residents adapted to the outdoor spaces through adjustment of clothing, activity spaces and activity times in different seasons. These findings shed light on the optimal design of outdoor spaces for increasing the utilization rate. Sunny and shady subspaces should be considered to provide residents with more opportunities to interact with the environment for different seasons, thus improving their thermal comfort and the usage rate.

Psychometric properties of the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale Interview for DSM–5 (PSSI–5).

Changes to the diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) create a need for valid and reliable updated assessment tools. This study examined key psychometric properties (e.g., internal consistency, test-retest reliability, interrater reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity) of the PTSD Symptom Scale Interview for DSM-5 (PSSI-5), a modified version of the PSS-I (PTSD Symptom Scale)-Interview Version for the DSM-IV. Participants were 242 urban community residents, veterans, and college undergraduates, recruited from 3 study sites, who had experienced a DSM-5 Criterion A traumatic event. The PSSI-5 demonstrated good internal consistency (α = .89) and test-retest reliability (r = .87), as well as excellent interrater reliability for the total severity score (intraclass correlation = .98) and interrater agreement for PTSD diagnosis (κ = .84). The PSSI-5 also demonstrated convergent validity with 3 measures of PTSD (i.e., Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5, Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5, and PTSD Checklist-Specific Version; all rs > .72) and discriminant validity with the Beck Depression Inventory-II and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait scale. Receiver operating characteristic analysis yielded a cutoff score of 23 for identifying a probable PTSD diagnosis. Together, these findings indicate that the PSSI-5 is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing PTSD diagnosis and severity. (PsycINFO Database Record