Appendix M: Kessler psychological distress scale (K10)

Name: ___________________________ Date: _________________

For all questions, please circle the answer most commonly related to you. Questions 3 and 6 automatically receive a score of one if the previous question was ‘none of the time’.

In the past four weeks:	None of the time	A little of the time	Some of the time	Most of the time	All of the time
1. About how often did you feel tired out for no good reason?	1	2	3	4	5
2. About how often did you feel nervous?	1	2	3	4	5
3. About how often did you feel so nervous that nothing could calm you down?	1	2	3	4	5
4. About how often did you feel hopeless?	1	2	3	4	5
5. About how often did you feel restless or fidgety?	1	2	3	4	5
6. About how often did you feel so restless you could not sit still?	1	2	3	4	5
7. About how often did you feel depressed?	1	2	3	4	5
8. About how often did you feel that everything is an effort?	1	2	3	4	5
9. About how often did you feel so sad that nothing could cheer you up?	1	2	3	4	5
10. About how often did you feel worthless?	1	2	3	4	5
Total:

Test: Kessler, RC. (1996). Kessler’s 10 Psychological Distress Scale. Boston, MA: Harvard Medical School.

Normative data: Australian Bureau of Statistics. (1997). National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being. Canberra, Australia.

K10 scoring and interpretation