Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T20:40:56.397Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Validation of the Italian version of the GHQ in a general practice setting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

F. Fontanesi ,
C. Gobetti ,
Ch. Zimmermann-Tansella  and
M. Tansella
F. Fontanesi
Affiliation:
Cattedra di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy
C. Gobetti
Affiliation:
Cattedra di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy
Ch. Zimmermann-Tansella
Affiliation:
Cattedra di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy
M. Tansella*
Affiliation:
Cattedra di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy
*
1Address for correspondence: Professor Michele Tansella, Cattedra di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psichiatria, Università di Verona, 37134 Verona, Italy.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

The 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS) were administered to 120 consecutive attendere at a general practice in Northern Italy run by a doctor who had a formal psychiatric training. The Italian versions of both the GHQ and the CIS were found to be feasible instruments for general practice studies in Italy. GHQ misclassification rates, sensitivity and specificity values are presented for different cut-off scores, a total score of 5 or more being the best discriminator between ‘cases’ and ‘non-cases’. The prevalence of confirmed cases in this sample was 47·5%, a rate higher than those reported so far in developed and developing countries.

Type
Preliminary Communication
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , May 1985 , pp. 411 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Banks, M. H. (1983). Validation of the General Health Questionnaire in a young community sample. Psychological Medicine 13, 349–353.Google Scholar
Benjamin, S., Decalmer, P. & Haran, D. (1982). Community screening for mental illness: a validity study of the General Health Questionnaire. British Journal of Psychiatry 140, 174–180.Google Scholar
Duncan-Jones, P. & Henderson, S. (1978). Use of a two-phase design in a prevalence study. Social Psychiatry 13, 231–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finlay-Jones, R. A. & Murphy, E. (1979). Severity of psychiatric disorders and the 30-item General Health Questionnaire. British Journal of Psychiatry 134, 609–616.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, D. P. (1972). The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1978). Manual of the General Health Questionnaire. NFER Publishing Company: Windsor.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1981). Estimating the prevalence of psychiatric disorders from the results of a screening test. In What is a Case? (ed. Wing, J. K., Bebbington, P. and Robins, L. N.), pp. 129–136. Grant-McIntyre: London.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. & Blackwell, B. (1970). Psychiatric illness in general practice. A detailed study using a new method of case identification. British Medical Journal ii, 439–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, D. P., Cooper, B., Eastwood, M. R., Kedward, H. B. & Shepherd, M. (1970). A standardised psychiatric interview suitable for use in community surveys. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine 24, 18–23.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. & Hillier, V. F. (1979). A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine 9, 139–145.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P., Kay, C. & Thompson, L. (1976 a). Psychiatric morbidity in a general practice and the community. Psychological Medicine 6, 565–569.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P., Rickels, K., Downing, R. & Hesbacher, P. (1976 b). A comparison of two psychiatric screening tests. British Journal of Psychiatry 129, 61–67.Google Scholar
Harding, T. W., De Arango, M. V., Baltazar, J., Climent, C. E., Ibrahim, H. H. A., Ladrido-Ignacio, L., Murthy, R. S. & Wig, N. N. (1980). Mental disorders in primary health care: a study of frequency and diagnosis in four developing countries. Psychological Medicine 10, 231–241.Google Scholar
Henderson, S., Duncan-Jones, P., Byrne, D. G., Scott, R. & Aldcock, S. (1979). Psychiatric disorder in Canberra. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 60, 355–374.Google Scholar
Hobbs, P., Ballinger, C. B. & Smith, A. H. W. (1983). Factor analysis and validation of the General Health Questionnaire in women: a general practice survey. British Journal of Psychiatry 142, 257–264.Google Scholar
Jenkins, R. (1980). Minor psychiatric morbidity in employed men and women and its contribution to sickness absence. Psychological Medicine 10, 751–757.Google Scholar
Mari, J. J. & Williams, P. (1984). Minor psychiatric disorders in primary care in Brasil: a pilot study. Psychological Medicine 14, 223–227.Google Scholar
Marks, J., Goldberg, D. P. & Hillier, V. F. (1979). Determinants of the ability of general practitioners to detect psychiatric illness. Psychological Medicine 9, 337–353.Google Scholar
Tarnopolsky, A., Hand, D. J., McLean, E. K., Roberts, H. & Wiggins, R. D. (1979). Validity and uses of a screening questionnaire (GHQ) in the community. British Journal of Psychiatry 134, 508–515.Google Scholar
Tennant, C. (1977). The General Health Questionnaire: a valid index of psychological impairment in Australian population. Medical Journal of Australia ii, 392–394.Google Scholar
Williams, P., Tarnopolsky, A. & Clare, A. (1980). Recent advances in the epidemiological study of minor psychiatric disorders. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 73, 679–680.Google Scholar
Zintl-Wiegand, A., Schmid-Maushart, C., Leisner, R. & Cooper, B. (1978). Psychische Erkrankungen in Mannheimer Allgemeinpraxen. In Psychiatrische Epidemiologie (ed. Häfner, H.), pp. 111–133. Springer: Berlin.Google Scholar