Validéz de criterio de la escala de impacto de los estresores en mujeres colombianas víctimas de diferentes formas de violencia

background: the impact of event scale (ies) was designed to identify symptoms of post-traumatic stress in clinical settings. the ies showed high internal consistency in colombian violence-victimized women. although, it is necessary to determine the criterion validity for posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd). objective: to establish the criterion validity of ies for ptsd among violence-victimized women at bucaramanga, colombia. method: in the present research participated 310 women between 18 and 65 years (mean = 31.6 years, sd = 10.7); the mean scholarship was 8.8 years (sd = 4.4); 59.1% were half- or full-time employees; 58.7% were married; 60.6% lived in low-class neibourghood; 52.3% reported have been victims of physical assault; and 26.8% informed that the aggressor was sexual partner. a trained nurse applied the 15-item version of ies (four-option likert pattern answer) and a psychiatrist interviewed each woman to identify cases of dsm-iv-ptsd. results: for the best cutoff point (46/75) of the eie, the sensitivity was 65.5% (95%ci 56.1-73.9); specificity, 65.5% (95%ci 58.3-72.0); positive predictive value, 53.1% (95%ci 44.6-61.5); negative predictive value, 76.0% (95%ci 68.7-82.2); positive likelihood ratio, 1.9; negative likelihood ratio, 0.52; cohen′s kappa, 0.296 (95%ci 0.190-0.402); and area under receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.697 (95%ci 0.639-0.755). conclusions: the ies presents very modest concordance to ptsd diagnosis, according to dsm-iv criteria. the ies should not be used as a measure of ptsd in forensic settings.