{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T21:52:13Z","timestamp":1788472333164,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,28]],"date-time":"2025-04-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1745798400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL) is a widely used measure of anxiety and depression symptoms. The short form HSCL-5 is especially suitable for large population-based studies, but its ability to detect mental disorders in the general population remains unknown. The aim of the study was to assess how well the HSCL-5 identified cases of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) measured by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) 5.0 and to find the optimal sex-specific cut-off levels of the HSCL-5. Methods: Participants from the population-based Tr\u00f8ndelag Health Study (HUNT) in Norway were recruited for the current study. Between April and September 2020, 1343 participants (64% women) aged 20\u201365 years completed the CIDI, followed by the HSCL-5. The overall agreement between the HSCL-5 and GAD or MDD measured by CIDI was examined with Receiver Operator Characteristics (ROC) analysis. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive values (NPV) for different cut-off levels were assessed. Results: The area under the curve for GAD or MDD was 0.90 (CI 95% = 0.85\u20130.95) for women and 0.85 (CI 95% = 0.68\u20131.00) for men. For women, a cut-off level of \u22651.80 had the best balance between sensitivity (85%) and specificity (84%), while the corresponding numbers were \u22652.00, 73%, and 93% for men. The global PPV was 21%, while the NPV was 99%. Conclusions: The HSCL-5 has high sensitivity and specificity for identifying cases of GAD or MDD. In the current study, the positive predictive value of HSCL-5 was low.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph22050698","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,5,4]],"date-time":"2025-05-04T20:42:37Z","timestamp":1746391357000},"page":"698","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["The Ability of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-5 to Identify Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder in the General Population"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2641-5477","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Benedicte","family":"Kirk\u00f8en","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0473 Oslo, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2640-3273","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ragnhild Elise","family":"\u00d8rstavik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0473 Oslo, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anne","family":"Reneflot","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mental Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0473 Oslo, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0722-5440","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jens Christoffer","family":"Skogen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 5015 Bergen, Norway"},{"name":"Centre for Evaluation of Public Health Measures, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 0473 Oslo, Norway"},{"name":"Alcohol and Drug Research Western Norway, Stavanger University Hospital, 4068 Stavanger, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"B\u00f8rge","family":"Sivertsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 5015 Bergen, Norway"},{"name":"Department of Research & Innovation, Helse-Fonna HF, 5525 Haugesund, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ann Kristin Skrindo","family":"Knudsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Disease Burden, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 5015 Bergen, Norway"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"GBD 2019 Mental Disorders Collaborators (2022). 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