Psychometric properties of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) to be applied for the Iranian elder population

Introduction: The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) is a self-administered questionnaire to screen and detect individuals with a diagnosable psychiatric disorder. This study was designed to validate the Persian translated version of the short 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) for use with the Iranian elder population.Method: A forward-backward translation method was performed to ensure the quality of the English to Persian translation. A sample of 300 Iranian elder (60years and over) people was selected from locations known to be frequented by older adults residing in three cities in Iran. Factor of the GHQ-12 was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were measured by estimating the Cronbach's alpha and Spearman correlation coefficients, respectively.Results: The study participants included 157 (52.3%) men and 143(47.7%) women with an average age of 66.5years (SD = 5.5). Cronbach's alpha for Social dysfunction, psychological distress and overall score were 0.80, 0.78 and 0.82, respectively. The test-retest correlation coefficients among two sub-scales of the GHQ-12 as well as the overall scores ranged from 0.84 to 0.93. CFA revealed a good fit for a modified 12-item two-factor structure.Conclusion: The Persian version of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire was found to be valid and reliable for measuring general health of Persian speaking elderly populations.