Psychometric Properties of the Online Version of the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7): A Longitudinal Study in Pregnant and Postpartum Spanish Women

• Published in: Psicothema 2024-08, Vol.36 (3), p.227
• Main Authors: Gómez-Gómez, Irene, Domínguez-Salas, Sara, Rodríguez-Muñoz, María F, Rodríguez-Domínguez, Carmen, Gómez-Baya, Diego, Motrico, Emma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Female; Humans; Internet; Longitudinal Studies; Postpartum Period - psychology; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications - diagnosis; Pregnancy Complications - psychology; Psychometrics; Reproducibility of Results; Spain; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1886-144X; 1886-144X
• DOI: 10.7334/psicothema2023.293

The use of online questionnaires to assess common mental disorders such as perinatal anxiety has spread due to the proliferation of Internet-based psychological interventions and research. This study analyses the validity and reliability of the online version of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) in a sample of pregnant and postpartum Spanish women. A total of 3082 pregnant (n = 1260) and postpartum (n = 1822) women were recruited via the Internet and underwent three follow-up evaluations during a six-month period. A one-factor solution was assigned by Exploratory Factor Analysis and confirmed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis for both pregnant (CFI = 0.998; RMSEA = 0.035) and postpartum (CFI = 0.998; RMSEA = 0.038) women. The one-factor model showed strict invariance across groups. Validity was confirmed by assessing correlations between GAD-7, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and the 10-item Posttraumatic Stress Disorder checklist at three time points. The reliability coefficient was .92 for the two groups. This study shows that the Spanish online GAD-7 version has good psychometric properties and can be used to assess anxiety symptoms during the perinatal period.