Alessia Gatti1, Juliana Gottschling2, Agostino Brugnera3, Roberta Adorni3,4, Cristina Zarbo3, Angelo Compare1,3, Daniel L Segal5. 1. a Human Factors and Technology in Healthcare , University of Bergamo , Bergamo , Italy. 2. b Department of Psychology , Saarland University , Saarbruecken , Germany. 3. c Department of Human and Social Sciences , University of Bergamo , Bergamo , Italy. 4. d Department of Engineering and Applied Science , University of Bergamo , Bergamo , Italy. 5. e Department of Psychology , University of Colorado at Colorado Springs , Colorado Springs , CO , USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Italian older adult population is increasing and psychiatric problems, such as anxiety among older adults, represent major challenges for public welfare. A strong need exists for instruments specifically developed to assess anxiety among Italian older adults. The Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS) is a 30-item self-report questionnaire that evaluates anxiety among older adults and has demonstrated strong psychometric properties in several languages. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to validate an Italian version of the GAS (GAS-I) and to preliminarily investigate its psychometric properties. METHOD: The translation was performed using a five-stage procedure, following a forward-back process and paying attention to cultural issues. The GAS-I was administered to 231 community-dwelling older adults with other commonly-used questionnaires of anxiety, depression, and quality of life. RESULTS: Results confirmed good psychometric qualities of the questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analyses evidenced a unidimensional structure of the GAS-I, in accordance with other validated versions. Convergent and discriminant validity were highly satisfactory. The three-factor model also provided an acceptable fit to the data. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed good discriminatory power of the GAS-I. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that the GAS-I is a reliable and valid self-report questionnaire to measure anxiety among Italian older adults.
BACKGROUND: The Italian older adult population is increasing and psychiatric problems, such as anxiety among older adults, represent major challenges for public welfare. A strong need exists for instruments specifically developed to assess anxiety among Italian older adults. The Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS) is a 30-item self-report questionnaire that evaluates anxiety among older adults and has demonstrated strong psychometric properties in several languages. OBJECTIVE: The present study aimed to validate an Italian version of the GAS (GAS-I) and to preliminarily investigate its psychometric properties. METHOD: The translation was performed using a five-stage procedure, following a forward-back process and paying attention to cultural issues. The GAS-I was administered to 231 community-dwelling older adults with other commonly-used questionnaires of anxiety, depression, and quality of life. RESULTS: Results confirmed good psychometric qualities of the questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analyses evidenced a unidimensional structure of the GAS-I, in accordance with other validated versions. Convergent and discriminant validity were highly satisfactory. The three-factor model also provided an acceptable fit to the data. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed good discriminatory power of the GAS-I. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate that the GAS-I is a reliable and valid self-report questionnaire to measure anxiety among Italian older adults.
Authors: Stefania Pascut; Susanna Feruglio; Cristiano Crescentini; Alessio Matiz Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2022-09-01 Impact factor: 4.614