Validity of the Chinese version of the somatic symptom disorder-B criteria scale among patients with chronic cough.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to test the validity of the Chinese Version of the Somatic Symptom Disorder-B Criteria Scale (SSD-12) for identifying Somatic Symptom Disorder (SSD) among Chinese patients with chronic cough, in accordance with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) diagnostic criteria.

METHODS

Participants completed the Chinese Version of SSD-12, a general information questionnaire, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15), and the Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5, Research Version (SCID-5-RV) served as the reference standard for SSD diagnosis, and the validity of SSD-12 was analyzed.

RESULTS

A total of 371 patients were included. The SSD-12 demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.95, Spearman-Brown split-half coefficient = 0.95), with a three-factor structure explaining 78.7% of the total variance (KMO = 0.95, p < 0.001). With SCID-5-RV as the gold standard (48 SSD cases, 323 non-SSD cases), the SSD-12 exhibited excellent diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.969), with an optimal cut-off of 13.5 (sensitivity = 0.98, specificity = 0.94). The SSD-12 sum score was significantly correlated with PHQ-15 (r = 0.67), GAD-7 (r = 0.70), PHQ-9 (r = 0.66), and LCQ (r = -0.52, all p < 0.001), and showed significant incremental validity beyond PHQ-15 in predicting LCQ (ΔF = 45.90, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The Chinese Version of SSD-12 demonstrates excellent reliability, validity and diagnostic performance among patients with chronic cough, thus serving as an effective and efficient tool for SSD screening in respiratory care.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: This study was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trials Register ( http://www.chictr.org.cn/ ) (ChiCTR2400079808).