{"title":"Dimensionality of the Swahili version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in a Kenyan population: A confirmatory factor analysis","authors":"Dharani Keyan, Dusan Hadzi-Pavlovic, Aemal Akhtar, Katie Dawson, Phiona Naserian Koyiet, Richard Bryant","doi":"10.1017/gmh.2024.46","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The current study evaluated the Kiswahili version of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in a Kenyan context comprising of women exposed to gender-based violence. Participants were randomly drawn from community sampling using household screening methods in peri-urban areas in Nairobi. A total of 1,394 participants with varying levels of literacy (years of education: mean [M] = 9.42; standard deviation [SD] = 3.73) and aged between 18 and 89 years were recruited for the study. The observed factor structure of the GHQ-12 was evaluated using six most tested models querying the dimensionality of the instrument insofar as the impacts of positive and negative wording effects in driving multidimensionality. Results from the confirmatory factor analysis supported a bifactor model, consisting of a general distress factor and two separate factors representing common variance due to the positive and negative wording of items. Overall, the findings support the use of the Kiswahili version of the GHQ-12 as a unidimensional construct with method-specific variance owing to wording effects. Importantly, GHQ-12 responses from a sample of Kenyan women with relatively low levels of literacy are congruent with the factor structure observed in other cross-cultural settings in low- and-middle-income countries.</p>","PeriodicalId":48579,"journal":{"name":"Global Mental Health","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Global Mental Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2024.46","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHIATRY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The current study evaluated the Kiswahili version of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in a Kenyan context comprising of women exposed to gender-based violence. Participants were randomly drawn from community sampling using household screening methods in peri-urban areas in Nairobi. A total of 1,394 participants with varying levels of literacy (years of education: mean [M] = 9.42; standard deviation [SD] = 3.73) and aged between 18 and 89 years were recruited for the study. The observed factor structure of the GHQ-12 was evaluated using six most tested models querying the dimensionality of the instrument insofar as the impacts of positive and negative wording effects in driving multidimensionality. Results from the confirmatory factor analysis supported a bifactor model, consisting of a general distress factor and two separate factors representing common variance due to the positive and negative wording of items. Overall, the findings support the use of the Kiswahili version of the GHQ-12 as a unidimensional construct with method-specific variance owing to wording effects. Importantly, GHQ-12 responses from a sample of Kenyan women with relatively low levels of literacy are congruent with the factor structure observed in other cross-cultural settings in low- and-middle-income countries.
期刊介绍:
lobal Mental Health (GMH) is an Open Access journal that publishes papers that have a broad application of ‘the global point of view’ of mental health issues. The field of ‘global mental health’ is still emerging, reflecting a movement of advocacy and associated research driven by an agenda to remedy longstanding treatment gaps and disparities in care, access, and capacity. But these efforts and goals are also driving a potential reframing of knowledge in powerful ways, and positioning a new disciplinary approach to mental health. GMH seeks to cultivate and grow this emerging distinct discipline of ‘global mental health’, and the new knowledge and paradigms that should come from it.