Using a Rasch model to examine the utility of the South Oaks Gambling Screen across clinical and community samples

The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS: [Am. J. Psychiatr. 144 (1987) 1184]) is one of the most widely used measures of gambling problems in epidemiological studies and clinical evaluations. In the current paper, we were able to examine the SOGS using a Rasch model with data obtained from a representative community sample and a large clinical sample. The SOGS demonstrated significant stability across community and clinical samples despite the sample differences in gambling behaviors and demographic characteristics. In the clinical sample, we demonstrated the significant agreement between DSM-IV- and SOGS-based estimates of each person's level of gambling problem severity. However, the relative severity of DSM-IV and SOGS symptoms suggests that the measures tap somewhat different and overlapping regions of the latent continuum. We estimate that the DSM-IV reliably separates three levels of gambling problem severity and provides corresponding cut scores for a SOGS scale composed of 15 sample-invariant items. Recommendations for a relaxed cut score on the DSM-IV and reduced set of SOGS items are discussed. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.