ArticleJournal of affective disorders2015
Psychometric properties and factor structure of the General Health Questionnaire as a screening tool for anxiety and depressive symptoms in a multi-national study of young adults.
Article in Journal of affective disorders, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- International Comparison of Self-Concept, Self-Perception and Lifestyle in Adolescents: A Systematic Review.International journal of public health · 2022Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Salivary Cortisol and α-amylase Level, Anxiety and Depression in Students: A Randomized and Parallel-Group Clinical Trial.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2025Trial
- Dose and timing effects of caffeine on subsequent sleep: a randomized clinical crossover trial.Sleep · 2025Trial
- Psychological Distress Among Primary Care Professionals in Singapore: Repeated-Measures Analyses of Two Independent Observation Windows (HADS and GHQ-12).Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The Associations Between Income and Depression: A Cross-National Analysis.Depression and anxiety · 2026Article
- Charting the course of depression care: a meta-analysis of reliability generalization of the patient health questionnaire (PHQ- 9) as the measure.Discover mental health · 2025Article
- Longitudinal and Gender Measurement Invariance of the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) From Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood.Assessment · 2024Article
- Dose response effects of theacrine on cognitive performance and subsequent sleep.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Mental health and sleep in the post-COVID-19 era among Thai undergraduate students.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Socio-economic inequities in mental health problems and wellbeing among women working in the apparel and floriculture sectors: testing the mediating role of psychological capital, social support and tangible assets.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Food expenditure, income, and mental health: Outcomes from the UK Household Longitudinal Survey.PloS one · 2024Article
- Reliability, validity and dimensionality of the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire among South African healthcare workers.African journal of psychological assessment · 2024Article
- Associations between Profiles of Helicopter Parenting and Decisional Procrastination among Chinese Adolescents.Journal of youth and adolescence · 2023Article
- Mobile phone addiction and mental health: the roles of sleep quality and perceived social support.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Stressful Events, Psychological Distress and Well-Being during the Second Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic in Spain: A Gender Analysis.Applied research in quality of life · 2022Article
- Socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyles, social support quality and mental health in college students: a cross-sectional study.BMC public health · 2022Article
- How to Measure the Mental Health of Teachers? Psychometric Properties of the GHQ-12 in a Large Sample of German Teachers.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Mental Health of Guatemalan Health Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Baseline Findings From the HEROES Cohort Study.American journal of public health · 2022Article
- Questionnaires Assessing Adolescents' Self-Concept, Self-Perception, Physical Activity and Lifestyle: A Systematic Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- [Mental health of Guatemalan health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: baseline findings from the HEROES cohort studySaúde mental dos trabalhadores da saúde guatemaltecos durante a pandemia de COVID-19: constatações basais do estudo da coorte HEROES].Revista panamericana de salud publica = Pan American journal of public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundGlobally, common psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) is a widely used questionnaire for screening or detecting common psychiatric disorders. The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability, construct validity and factor structure of the GHQ-12 in a large sample of African, Asian and South American young adults.
methodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among 9077 undergraduate students from Chile, Ethiopia, Peru and Thailand. Students aged 18-35 years were invited to complete a self-administered questionnaire that collected information about lifestyle, demographics, and GHQ-12. In each country, the construct validity and factorial structures of the GHQ-12 questionnaire were tested through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA).
resultsOverall the GHQ-12 items showed good internal consistency across all countries as reflected by the Cronbach's alpha: Chile (0.86), Ethiopia (0.83), Peru (0.85), and Thailand (0.82). Results from EFA showed that the GHQ-12 had a two-factor solution in Chile, Ethiopia and Thailand, although a three-factor solution was found in Peru. These findings were corroborated by CFA. Indicators of goodness of fit, comparative fit index (CFI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), and standardized root mean squared residual, were all in acceptable ranges across study sites. The CFI values for Chile, Ethiopia, Peru and Thailand were 0.964, 0.951, 0.949, and 0.931, respectively. The corresponding RMSEA values were 0.051, 0.050, 0.059, and 0.059.
conclusionOverall, we documented cross-cultural comparability of the GHQ-12 for assessing common psychiatric disorders such as symptoms of depressive and anxiety disorders among young adults. Although the GHQ-12 is typically used as single-factor questionnaire, the results of our EFA and CFA revealed the multi- dimensionality of the scale. Future studies are needed to further evaluate the specific cut points for assessing each component within the multiple factors.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.