Saunders, Rob;
Moinian, Delilah;
Stott, Joshua;
Delamain, Henry;
Naqvi, Syed Ali;
Singh, Satwant;
Wheatley, Jon;
... Buckman, Joshua EJ; + view all
(2023)
Measurement invariance of the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 across males and females seeking treatment for common mental health disorders.
BMC Psychiatry
, 23
, Article 298. 10.1186/s12888-023-04804-x.
Preview |
Text
s12888-023-04804-x.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the seven-item Generalised Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) scales are routinely used in research and clinical practice. Whilst measurement invariance of these measures across gender has been demonstrated individually in general population studies and clinical samples, less is known about invariance of the distinct but correlated latent factors ('depression' and 'anxiety'). The current study assessed measurement invariance of these constructs across males and females seeking treatment for common mental health disorders. METHODS: Data were provided from eight psychological treatment services in London, England. Data from initial assessments with the services where individual items on the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were available were included in analyses. Measurement invariance was explored across self-identified genders, with 'male' and 'female' categories available in the dataset. Sensitivity analyses were conducted using propensity score matching on sociodemographic and clinical variables. RESULTS: Data were available for 165,872 patients (110,833 females, 55,039 males). There was evidence of measurement invariance between males and females in both the full sample and a propensity score matched sample (n = 46,249 in each group). CONCLUSIONS: Measurement invariance of the correlated depression and anxiety factors of PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were indicated in this sample of individuals seeking psychological treatment for CMHDs. These results support the use of these measures in routine clinical practice for both males and females. This is of particular importance for assessing the prevalence of clinically significant levels of symptoms as well as comparing treatment outcomes across genders.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Measurement invariance of the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 across males and females seeking treatment for common mental health disorders |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12888-023-04804-x |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-04804-x |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
| Keywords: | Community mental health services, GAD-7, Gender, Measurement invariance, PHQ-9 |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10169255 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
