Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40697729›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in psychology2025

Psychometric properties of the Arabic generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD-5) in a non-clinical sample of Arabic-speaking adults.

Toni Sawma, Pio Abd El Nour, Diana Malaeb, Fouad Sakr, Mariam Dabbous, Sami El-Khatib, Feten Fekih-Romdhane, Souheil Hallit, Sahar Obeid

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Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

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3citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Toni SawmaDepartment of Psychology and Education, School of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese American University, Jbeil, Lebanon.
Pio Abd El NourSchool of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Jounieh, Lebanon.
Diana MalaebCollege of Pharmacy, Gulf Medical University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates.
Fouad SakrSchool of Pharmacy, Lebanese International University, Beirut, Lebanon.
Mariam DabbousSchool of Pharmacy, Lebanese International University, Beirut, Lebanon.
Sami El-KhatibDepartment of Biomedical Sciences,School of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese International University, Bekaa, Lebanon.
Feten Fekih-RomdhaneDepartment of Psychiatry "Ibn Omrane", The Tunisian Center of Early Intervention in Psychosis, Razi Hospital, Manouba, Tunisia.
Souheil HallitSchool of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Jounieh, Lebanon.
Sahar ObeidDepartment of Psychology and Education, School of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese American University, Jbeil, Lebanon.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a highly prevalent psychological disorder with a frequent distribution among the general population and in primary care configurations. GAD-5 is one of the many present scales with little research on, but has the potential to orient clinical decisions due to its unique features. Validating a simple and cost-effective tool to assess the GAD in the Arabic-speaking population, primarily residing in the Middle-East and North-Africa (MENA) region, would be highly beneficial. The study aimed to translate GAD-5 into Arabic and evaluate its psychometric properties, including internal reliability, sex invariance, composite reliability, and correlation with a measure of psychological distress. Methods: a total of 629 Arabic-speaking adults were recruited in May 2023. A self-administered anonymous survey was distributed through social media using a Google Forms link. We used the SPSS AMOS software v.28 to conduct the confirmatory factor analysis of the GAD-5 scale. Results: the fit indices deriving from the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the one-factor model of the GAD items was acceptable. The convergent validity for this model and the internal consistency of the scale were good. Configural, metric, and scalar invariance was supported across sex. A higher mean anxiety score was seen in females compared to males. Higher GAD-5 scores were significantly associated with higher anxiety, depression and stress as measured by the Depression, Anxiety and Stress 8 items (DASS-8) scale, showing convergent and concurrent validity. Conclusion: our findings confirmed the briefness, validity and reliability of the Arabic version of the GAD-5 scale which support its employment as a screening tool in the general population. Considering these results, we advise using it for therapeutic and research motives among the Arabic-speaking individuals.

Indexed as

ArabicGAD-5generalized anxiety disorderLebanonpsychometric properties

Identifiers

PMID40697729
PMCPMC12282425

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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.