1. The 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12):
4th World Congress on Women´s Mental Health March Madrid, Spain
The 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12):
Reliability and factor structure in the Chilean population
María del Pilar Sánchez-López and Raquel Rivas-Diez
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Introduction
The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), was developed by Goldberg (Goldberg y Hillier, 1979) like a screening questionnaire to assess people´s overall psychological well-being and to detect non-psychotic psychiatric problems. 
The GHQ-12 is a selfadministered questionnaire widely used and validated internationaly.
The factorial structure is still currenly under debate. Previous studies have reported models of one to three factors. Recent results suggest that the GHQ-12 is a unidimensional measure, showing that multidimensional models are the result of a response bias on the items expressing negative mood states and multiple structural factors (Hankins, 2008a; Hankins, 2008b; Ye, 2009). With the application of confirmatory factor analysis, other researchers have been able to test a number of alternative models and have consistently found that a model of three factors (Anxiety/Depression, Social dysfunction and Loss of confidence) proposed by Graetz (1991), is fits the data better than other models (Campbell, Walker y Farrell, 2003; French y Tait, 2004; Shevlin y Adamson, 2005).
To use the experience gained and allow comparison of results with data found in other cultures, we consider relevant to confirm the validation of the questionnaire in Chilean women and to assess for the first time a Chilean population dimensionality of instrument with confirmatory factor analysis.
Results
Reliability:
Cronbach´s Alpha was calculated to analyze internal consistency. We found an alpha value of 0.86 for the entire Chilean women sample.
Exploratory factor analysis:
All factors have eigenvalues exceeding unity, a criterion used to guide the number of significant factors. The first factor accounts for more than a third of the variance in GHQ-12 (39.56%). While factors 2 and 3 are minor. The three factors together account for 59.48% of the variance in GHQ-12. Components of these three models are: distress or dysphoria (Anxiety/Depression, Social Dysfunction and Loss of confidence.
Confirmatory factor analysis:
Confirmatory factor analysis found that this three-factor model fits the model, with results very similar to he one-dimensional model to the covariance of the errors raised by Hankins (2008a).
Objective
The purpose of this study was to analyze the internal consistency and the factorial structure of the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in Chilean women.
Method
→ Women N = 371
→ Age range: 18-72
→ Mean age = years
→ SD = 12.87
Participants
Instruments
GHQ-12: 12-Item General Health Questionnaire
Consists of 12 items, each one assessing the severity of a mental problem over the past few weeks using a 4-point Likert-type scale (from 0 to 3)
Procedure
We proceeded to apply the instrument to a group of Chilean women. In Santiago of Chile was granted the sample through several universities (Universidad Mayor, Universidad Pontificia Católica de Chile), were provided instruments to several professional and was used the method “snowballing”; the data collection in Arica and Rancagua was done through the same procedure. In all cases the instrument was administered with a cover sheet indicating the directions for application. All our study participants gave their consent after explaining the purpose of research and the option to participate, ensuring their freedom to withdraw at any part of the study without any consequences. We also guarantee the anonymity of their data. In total 550 questionnaires were delivered, of whom about 150 are missing and the rest have been discarded for not having completed the instrument completely.
Conclusions
Results described support the conclusion that the GHQ-12 is an effective measure for assessing the psychological and detect non-psychotic psychiatric problems in Chilean women. With the results provided, will continue the process of adaptation of the GHQ-12, the instrument applies to men and increase the number of women to give more representative sample.
This study provides further evidence of the multidimensionality of the GHQ-12, so the results are confirmed by several authors proposed international. The GHQ-12 contains three underlying factors identified as distress or Dysphoria (Anxiety/Depression), Social dysfunction and Loss of confidence, which together account for 59.48% of the variance.
Evaluating factorial structure and psychometric properties of assessment measures in different cultural settings not only allows for the confirmation of its construct validity in a new cultural context but enables us to evaluate whether or not mental health symptoms cluster the same way across different cultural context (Gureje, 1991).
References
- Goldberg, D.P. & Hillier, V.F. (1979). A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine, 9,
- Graetz, B. (1991). Multidimensional properties of the General Health Questionnaire. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 26, 132–138.
- Hankins, M. (2008a). The factor structure of the twelve item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): the result of negative phrasing? Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health 4, 10.
- Hankins, M. (2008b). The reliability of the twelve-item general health questionnaire (GHQ-12) under realistic assumptions. BMC Public Health 8, 355.
- Ye, S. (2009). Factor structure of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): The role of negative wording effects. Personality and Individual differences, 46,