Assessment of the Mental Health of Police Officers: A Systematic Review of Specific Instruments

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 21; no. 10; p. 1300
• Main Authors: Teles, Davi Oliveira, Oliveira, Raquel Alves de, Parnaíba, Anna Luísa de Oliveira, Rios, Mariana Araújo, Machado, Melissa Bezerra, Aquino, Priscila de Souza, Menezes, Purdenciana Ribeiro de, Ribeiro, Samila Gomes, Soares, Paula Renata Amorim Lessa, Biazus Dalcin, Camila, Pinheiro, Ana Karina Bezerra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 28.09.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Careers; Citation management software; Essential workers; Health sciences; Humans; Literature reviews; Medical screening; Mental disorders; Mental Health; Police; Post traumatic stress disorder; Professionals; Psychometrics - instrumentation; Review; Surveys and Questionnaires; Systematic review; Work environment; police; surveys and questionnaires; systematic review; mental health
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph21101300

The objective was to identify validated instruments from the literature that assess the mental health of police officers. This is a systematic review of validated instruments used to assess the mental health of police officers. Searches were conducted in the MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, CINAHL/EBSCO, and Virtual Health Library databases. This review follows the JBI Manual for Systematic Reviews and the PRISMA statement. The methodological quality of the articles and the risk of bias were assessed. A total of 1530 studies were identified across the six databases, with 158 studies read in full by the authors after excluding duplicates and those that did not meet the inclusion criteria. The final 29 studies were analyzed for methodological quality and risk of bias using the AXIS and SFS-D tools. This review identified 27 self-administered validated instruments useful for assessing various mental health outcomes in police officers, with the most frequently used being the Police Stress Questionnaire. These findings may help guide security force administration, occupational health professionals, and mental health researchers in selecting and implementing psychometrically reliable instruments for screening the mental health of police officers.