{
  "abstract": "Objective Sport Mental Health Assessment Tool 1 (SMHAT-1) ensures comprehensive and reliable mental health screening in athletes. However, its triage’s predictive validity varies depending on the mental health domain (5%–60% false negative rates), while the full algorithm imposes a substantial time burden for routine screening. This study aimed to develop and validate a brief, clinically accurate alternative using the pool of items included in SMHAT-1.Methods SMHAT-1 and subsequent brief clinical interviews were administered in Polish Olympic athletes over three waves of routine medical check-ups. An ant colony optimisation algorithm that evaluates item combinations holistically rather than sequentially was trained on two datasets (N 1=1121, N2=803) to identify the optimal item subset predicting post-interview mental health recommendations. The solution underwent independent validation in the third dataset (N3=1134).Results The best solution comprised 18 items, achieved 81% accuracy in predicting the post-clinical interview mental health evaluation in the training datasets and 80% in an independent dataset, overperforming the SMHAT-1 triage on all performance indicators. The Athlete Mental Health Screen-18 (AMHS-18) demonstrated superior sensitivity (94%) and specificity (72%) at the optimal cut-off (≥19), with strong internal consistency (ω=0.82).Conclusion The AMHS-18 is a time-efficient, valid and reliable tool for accurate mental health screening in athletes. It offers a practical alternative to the full SMHAT-1, particularly in settings where time and resources are limited or when athletes are screened regularly. We recommend using AMHS-18 instead of SMHAT-1’s triage and alternating SMHAT-1 with AMHS-18 as a starting point for routine brief clinical intake interviews.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Sport, Warszawa, Poland"
      ],
      "name": "Wojciech Waleriańczyk"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "National Centre for Sports Medicine, Warsaw, Poland",
        "Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education, Warsaw, Poland"
      ],
      "name": "Katarzyna Wójcik"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "National Centre for Sports Medicine, Warsaw, Poland",
        "Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland"
      ],
      "name": "Katarzyna Konopka"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "National Centre for Sports Medicine, Warsaw, Poland",
        "Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education, Warsaw, Poland"
      ],
      "name": "Grzegorz Lisek"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "National Centre for Sports Medicine, Warsaw, Poland"
      ],
      "name": "Ewa Iwaszkiewicz"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "National Centre for Sports Medicine, Warsaw, Poland",
        "Clinical and Research Department of Applied Physiology, Mossakowski Medical Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland"
      ],
      "name": "Hubert Krysztofiak"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "National Centre for Sports Medicine, Warsaw, Poland"
      ],
      "name": "Jaroslaw Krzywański"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland"
      ],
      "name": "Bogdan Zawadzki"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Shorter, faster, but still accurate: using ant colony optimisation to develop and validate the Athlete Mental Health Screener-18 (AMHS-18) as a brief alternative to Sport Mental Health Assessment Tool 1 (SMHAT-1)",
  "uid": "24254a83-6a77-5bcc-906e-567be5d4450f"
}