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The 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): Reliability,external validity and factor structure in the Spanish population

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2008
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The purpose of this study was to analyze the internal consistency and the external and structure validity of the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in the Spanish general population. A stratified sample of 1001 subjects, ages between 25 and 65 years, taken from the general Spanish population was employed. The GHQ-12 and the Inventory of Situations and Responses of Anxiety-ISRA were administered. A Cronbach’s alpha of .76 (Standardized Alpha: .78) and a 3-factor structure (with oblique rotation and maximum likelihood procedure) were obtained. External validity of Factor I (Successful Coping) with the ISRA is very robust (.82; Factor II, .70; Factor III, .75). The GHQ-12 shows adequate reliability and validity in the Spanish population. Therefore, the GHQ-12 can be used with efficacy to assess people’s overall psychological well-being and to detect non-psychotic psychiatric problems. Additionally, our results confirm that the GHQ-12 can best be thought of as a multidimensional scale that assesses several distinct aspects of distress, rather than just a unitary screening measure.
El Cuestionario de Salud General de 12 Ítems (GHQ-12): fiabilidad, validez externa y estructura factorial en población española. El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar la consistencia interna y la validez externa y estructural del Cuestionario de Salud General de 12 Ítems (GHQ-12) en la población general española. La muestra está compuesta por 1.001 sujetos, de 25 a 65 años de edad, de la población española. El GHQ-12 y el Inventario de Situaciones y Respuestas de Ansiedad fueron administrados. Se encontró un alfa de Cronbach de .76 (alpha estandarizado: 0.78) y una estructura de 3 factores (con rotación oblicua y el procedimiento de máxima verosimilitud). La validez externa del Factor I (Afrontamiento exitoso) con el ISRA fue muy alta (0.82; Factor II, .70; Factor III, .75). El GHQ-12 demostró una fiabilidad y validez adecuada en la población española. Por tanto, el GHQ-12 puede ser utilizado con eficacia para evaluar el bienestar psicológico y detectar problemas psiquiátricos no psicóticos. Además de ello, nuestros resultados confirman que el GHQ-12 se porta mejor como una escala multidimensional que evalúa varios aspectos del malestar psicológico, que utilizado como una medida de screening único.
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