Designing Mental Health Indicators of Veterans Questionnaire Based on the Item Response Theory

Aims: The present study aimed to determine veterans’ mental health indicators based on the Item Response Theory. Information Methods: 474 veterans participated in this instrumental-psychometric study. The quality of life (SF-12), mental disorders checklist (SCL-90), and daily activities (Bartel) tools were used for data gathering. The data was analyzed using the DETECT method and multivalued Item response theory models. Likelihood indicators and Akaike’s information criterion were used to model data fit. Findings: The mean age of the veterans was 53.4±35.2 years. 266 veterans had physical injuries, and 208 (43.9%) had mental health problems in addition to physical injuries. The mean of items was 3.92 to 2.30. The highest experimental reliability was related to the Neuroticism dimension (0.91). The levels of dimension information were 3±, and the neuroticism dimension had the best level of information compared to other dimensions. Conclusion: The questionnaire on mental health indicators has four dimensions, and the questionnaire items, with adequate experimental reliability, can give information at all levels of ability.