Table 2 Summary of instrument characteristics

LANGUAGES

(suitable for groups from Middle East region)

-Arabic

-Persian (Farsi)

-Turkish

-Arabic

-Persian (Farsi)

-Turkish

-Arabic

-Persian (Farsi)

AVAILABILITY

Website (free)

Website (free)

Website (free)

FORMAT

-5 point Likert scale

-10 questions relating to psychological distress in previous four weeks

-Optional 4 questions assessing degree of disability, e.g. number of days totally unable to cope, number of days activity is cut back, number of times health professional was consulted & how many times physical problems have been the cause of distress

-4 point Likert scale

-10 questions rating how well each statement describes the participants response to a problem situation

-11 point Likert scale

-8 questions relating to satisfaction with quality of life domains

• Standard of living

• Health

• Life achievement

• Personal relationships

• Personal safety

• Community belonging

• Future security

• Religion/spirituality

-Satisfaction with life as a whole can be included as optional first question

SCORING

-Items scored between 1 (none of the time) & 5 (all of the time)

-Missing values excluded

-Sum of all items gives total score with range 10 (low risk) - 50 (severe risk of distress)

-Optional questions are excluded from total score

-Items scored between 1 (not at all true) & 4 (exactly true)

-Sum of all items gives total score between 10-40, or mean score can be used

-Scores not calculated if more than 3 missing values

-Items scored between 0 (completely dissatisfied) & 10 (completely satisfied)

-Screen to remove response sets

-Convert to %scale maximum value

-Analyse as separate variables or aggregate to give average score for subjective wellbeing

COMPARATIVE DATA AVAILABLE

Yes (NSW Population Health Survey 2007, Australian Bureau Statistics Health surveys, NZ Health survey 2006/07 - see websites http://www.health.nsw.gov.au,http://www.abs.gov.au,http://www.moh.govt.nz)

Yes (website below)

Yes (website below)