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The Factor Structure of the Twelve Items General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): a Population Based Study

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Abstract

Mental health is a key component of general health based on world health organization (WHO) definition of health. A short form of the general health questionnaire (GHQ-12) has been widely used as an assessment tool of general and mental health. This study was designed to evaluate the properties of the Persian version of this questionnaire. Of 6140 subjects aged 10–90 years of a cohort study of Northern Iran, the relevant data of 5074 individuals aged ≥18 years were considered for analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the six models including one-dimensional model, one-dimensional model with correlated errors on negative items, two-dimensional model based on negative and positive statement items, two-dimensional model based on social dysfunction and psychological distress, three-dimensional model based on anxiety/depression, social dysfunction and loss of confidence and finally one-dimensional model with an additional factor for the negatively phrased items. The best fit indices belonged to one-dimensional model with correlated errors on negative items with χ2 = 686.8, df = 39, CFI = 0.953, RMSEA = 0.057 (95%CI: 0.054–0.061), SRMR = 0.0317, AGFI = 0.952, TLI = 0.920 and AIC = 764.8 and also three-dimensional model with χ2 = 860.7, df = 51, CFI = 0.941, RMSEA = 0.056 (95%CI: 0.053–0.059), SRMR = 0.0343, AGFI = 0.955, TLI = 0.923 and AIC = 915.0. In the comparison between these two best models we had ∆χ2 = 174.2, ∆df = 12, p-value < 0.001 in favor of the one-dimensional model. One-dimensional model with correlated errors on negative items showed the best fitting indices with our population.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran

    Nima Motamed

  2. Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease Research Center, Firoozgar Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Shiva Edalatian Zakeri, Behnam Rabiee, Mansooreh Maadi, Mahmood Reza Khonsari & Farhad Zamani

  3. Department of Virology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Hossein Keyvani

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran

    Seyed Hamzeh Hosseini

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  1. Nima Motamed
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  2. Shiva Edalatian Zakeri
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  8. Farhad Zamani
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Correspondence to Farhad Zamani.

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Funding

This study was funded by Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease Research Center, Tehran Firoozgar Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study, approved by the Ethics Committee of Iran University of Medical Sciences.

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Motamed, N., Edalatian Zakeri, S., Rabiee, B. et al. The Factor Structure of the Twelve Items General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): a Population Based Study. Applied Research Quality Life 13, 303–316 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-017-9522-y

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