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Share result

Share this result page with someone you trust to review your answers and result.

Severity dial
Symptom factor map
What this result suggests

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Cutoff and guide context

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Higher and lower scored items
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Highest current distress items

These are the most frequently endorsed prompts in this run. Start here before treating every item as equally urgent.

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Factor detail

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These grouped factors help explain where distress is concentrating. The validated primary output remains the total K10 score.

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Answer review
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Tags: Diagnostics, Psychology, Psychometrics
Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6) Screener Screen recent psychological distress with six K6 questions, compare the 0 to 24 total with 5+ and 13+ cutoffs, and review item drivers.
Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) Score AUDIT-C alcohol screening answers, compare common 3+/4+ and VA/DoD 5+ cues, and review which item most drives follow-up.
Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D-20) Screen past-week depressive symptoms with CES-D-20 scoring, a 16-point reference read, symptom clusters, high-intensity items, and local exports.
Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) Assessment Score the 21-item BAI for past-week anxiety symptoms, then review severity bands, the 16+ cue, symptom mix, high items, and prior-score change.
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K10 scores put a short number on a broad recent pattern: how often distress symptoms have been showing up across the last 4 weeks. The scale does not ask for a diagnosis, a cause, or a life history. It asks about frequency across ten experiences that often travel with anxiety and low mood, such as nervousness, restlessness, hopelessness, tiredness, depressed mood, and feeling that everything takes effort.

That narrow time frame is part of what makes the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale useful. A person can be doing mostly well over the long term and still have a high recent score after a crisis, illness, workload spike, loss, medication change, poor sleep, or a run of panic and low mood. Another person can have long-running distress that feels normal to them and understate how often symptoms are present. The score is best read as a recent distress load, not as proof of a particular disorder.

Nonspecific distress
A combined signal across anxious, depressive, fatigue, agitation, and effort symptoms rather than one named condition.
Frequency response
Each answer says how often the symptom occurred, from none of the time to all of the time.
Raw total
The 10 item scores are added to give a total from 10 to 50.
Band guide
A threshold table that attaches words such as low, moderate, high, severe, or very high to the raw total.

K10 is common in surveys and health services because it is short, repeatable, and easy to score. It can help someone decide whether a conversation, appointment, or closer follow-up is needed. It can also make a vague concern more concrete by showing whether the distress is mainly tied to nervousness, agitation, low mood, fatigue, or a wide spread across several areas.

Two K10 banding bars compare the common four-band guide with the Australian population guide for 10 to 50 totals.

Band labels are useful shorthand, but they are not universal. One guide may call a score mild while another calls the same raw total high. That is not a scoring error; it means the guide was built for a different reporting context. Raw totals, item pattern, and the guide used for interpretation should travel together whenever a result is shared.

Helpful for Not enough for
Making recent distress easier to describe in a support conversation. Diagnosing depression, anxiety, trauma, substance effects, or a medical cause.
Comparing repeated scores when the same recall window and band guide are used. Comparing labels from different guides without checking the raw total.
Spotting high-frequency items that may need quicker attention. Deciding safety, treatment, work capacity, or medication changes by score alone.

How to Use This Tool:

Use one consistent last-4-weeks frame for every answer. The result becomes more useful when the total score, band comparison, high items, and factor pattern are read together.

  1. Start the assessment and answer from the whole last 4 weeks, not only from the best day, worst day, or current mood.
  2. Choose the closest frequency for each item: None of the time, A little of the time, Some of the time, Most of the time, or All of the time.
  3. Let the progress tracker guide completion. A valid K10 total needs all 10 items answered, including any item filled by the branching rule.
  4. Check items 3 and 6 if they appear skipped. When item 2 or item 5 is marked None of the time, its stronger follow-up item is scored as None of the time; change the parent item first if that does not match the month.
  5. Read the headline K10 score with the selected guide band, then check the cutoff comparison table to see whether the common four-band guide and Australian population guide agree.
  6. Use the Severity dial, Symptom factor map, highest item cards, and answer review to identify what is driving the result before sharing or exporting it.
  7. If an answer was entered incorrectly, revise it from the answer review. The score, bands, support cue, charts, and exports update from the changed response pattern.

If the result or any individual item points to distress that feels unsafe, urgent, or hard to cope with, use real-world support immediately instead of waiting for another self-check.

Interpreting Results:

The headline number is the K10 total, shown out of 50. Higher totals mean the listed distress symptoms were endorsed more often during the last 4 weeks. The band label gives a quick reading, but it should not be separated from the raw score or treated as a clinical conclusion.

  • Overall lane: the selected guide band for the raw total.
  • Cutoff context: whether the common and Australian guides place the same score in the same band.
  • Top area: the grouped symptom area with the highest relative load.
  • High items: prompts answered at Most of the time or All of the time.
  • Support urgency: a practical cue based on the selected band and high-frequency concerning items.

A low or mild band can still deserve attention when a concerning item is endorsed at the highest frequency. Hopelessness, sadness that nothing could cheer, and worthlessness are especially important to read item by item. The same is true when daily functioning is slipping even if the total does not look extreme.

Repeated scores are most meaningful when the same person uses the same time window, answer style, and band guide. A lower score after a short break from stress may reflect a real improvement, but it may also reflect changed recall, a better week, or different willingness to endorse symptoms.

Technical Details:

K10 scoring is additive. Each of the 10 items receives a value from 1 to 5, so the raw total ranges from 10 to 50. The scale is usually described as a measure of nonspecific psychological distress in the anxiety-depression spectrum, not as a separate anxiety score plus a separate depression score.

The score changes most when several symptoms are frequent at the same time. One item moving from None of the time to All of the time adds 4 points, but a pattern of several 4s and 5s can move the total across band boundaries quickly. This is why the result should be read with both the total and the item pattern.

Two dependent items follow a branching rule. If general nervousness is absent, the stronger item about being so nervous that nothing could calm you is scored as absent. If general restlessness is absent, the stronger item about being unable to sit still is scored as absent. The rule avoids a stronger follow-up symptom contradicting its parent symptom.

Formula Core

The K10 total is the sum of the 10 item scores after the branching rule has been applied.

K10 = ∑ i = 1 10 x i
Quantity Meaning Range or rule
x One frequency response after any dependent-item rule is applied. 1 to 5
K10 Raw distress total across all 10 items. 10 to 50
High-intensity item An item answered Most of the time or All of the time. 4 or 5

Band Guides

Different K10 reporting systems use different cutoffs. This page shows the selected common four-band guide and compares it with an Australian population guide so the raw total is not reduced to one label.

Guide Band Score range Reading
Common four-band Low 10-19 Lower recent distress under this guide.
Common four-band Mild 20-24 Some recent distress symptoms are present.
Common four-band Moderate 25-29 Distress is frequent enough to justify closer review.
Common four-band Severe 30-50 Heavy recent distress on this screener.
Australian population Low 10-15 Little or lower distress by that population guide.
Australian population Moderate 16-21 Middle population band.
Australian population High 22-29 High psychological distress by that guide.
Australian population Very high 30-50 Very high psychological distress by that guide.

Factor Map and Support Flags

The factor map is descriptive. It groups related items so the result can show which area is contributing most, but those grouped percentages are not separate validated K10 subscales. The raw K10 total remains the main score.

Output Items How it is calculated or used
Nervousness 2, 3 General nervousness plus the stronger nothing-could-calm-you follow-up.
Agitation 5, 6 Restlessness plus the stronger unable-to-sit-still follow-up.
Low mood 4, 7, 9, 10 Hopelessness, depressed mood, sadness that nothing could cheer, and worthlessness.
Fatigue and effort 1, 8 Tiredness without a clear reason and everything-feels-like-effort items.
Prompt support flag 4, 9, 10 Raised when hopelessness, inability to cheer up, or worthlessness is marked all of the time.

Relative load formula:

relative load = sum(max(0, item score - 1)) / (number of items x 4) x 100

Limitations and Privacy:

K10 is a screening measure for recent psychological distress. It does not explain why distress is present, separate temporary stress from a mental disorder, or replace clinical assessment. Physical illness, sleep loss, substance use, grief, unsafe environments, and medication effects can all influence how the items are answered.

  • Use the last 4 weeks consistently; changing the recall window makes repeated scores harder to compare.
  • Compare raw totals before comparing band labels, because threshold systems differ.
  • Responses stay in the browser unless you copy, download, export, or share a result link.
  • A shared result link preserves the answer pattern in the link, so send it only to someone you intend to trust with that information.
  • If immediate safety or coping is uncertain, contact local emergency or crisis support instead of relying on a self-report score.

Worked Examples:

Boundary split. A 22/50 total is Mild on the common four-band guide and High on the Australian population guide. The raw score is the same, but the label changes because the two guides use different cutoffs.

Low total with one important item. A 17/50 score may look low on one guide, but an All of the time response for hopelessness, sadness that nothing could cheer, or worthlessness should still be treated as important. Item-level review matters when a single answer carries a safety or support concern.

Branching rule check. If item 2 is None of the time, item 3 is scored that way too. To score the stronger nervousness item directly, change item 2 first so the parent symptom is no longer absent.

Repeat check. A person who scores 31/50 during a crisis and 24/50 a month later may have less frequent recent distress. The comparison is strongest when both scores used the same last-4-weeks frame and the same band guide.

FAQ:

What does a high K10 score mean?

It means frequent recent psychological distress symptoms on this self-report scale. It does not identify a specific diagnosis, cause, risk level, or treatment plan by itself.

Why do two guide labels appear?

K10 results are reported with more than one cutoff system. The common four-band guide and Australian population guide can label the same raw score differently, especially from the low 20s through the high 20s.

Why did item 3 or item 6 auto-score as none of the time?

Those are stronger follow-up items. Item 3 depends on item 2, and item 6 depends on item 5. When the parent symptom is absent, the stronger follow-up is scored as absent too.

Can I compare this with an older K10 score?

Yes, when the older score used the same 10 to 50 scoring range, the same recall window, and a similar response style. Compare raw totals first, then compare band labels.

Does the symptom factor map diagnose the main problem?

No. The factor map is a descriptive summary of this response pattern. It helps show where the endorsed items are concentrated, while the K10 total remains the primary score.

Glossary:

K10
The 10-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale.
Nonspecific psychological distress
A broad recent distress signal across anxiety-like, depression-like, fatigue, agitation, and effort symptoms.
Recall window
The period the answers are meant to cover. K10 uses the last 4 weeks.
Band guide
The threshold system used to attach a label such as Low, Moderate, High, Severe, or Very high to the raw total.
Branching rule
A dependent-item rule that scores a stronger follow-up symptom as absent when its parent symptom was absent.
Relative load
A descriptive percentage for grouped items after subtracting the minimum item value from each response.

References: