Validity of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in detecting depressive and anxiety disorders among high school students

• Published in: Psychiatry research 2011-05, Vol.187 (1), p.291-296
• Main Authors: Baksheev, Gennady Nickolaevich, Robinson, Jo, Cosgrave, Elizabeth Mary, Baker, Kathryn, Yung, Alison Ruth
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Anxiety disorders; Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis; Biological and medical sciences; Depression; Depressive Disorder - diagnosis; Depressive disorders; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Mood disorders; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics - methods; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reproducibility of Results; ROC Curve; Secondary schools; Sensitivity; Specificity; Surveys and Questionnaires
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2010.10.010

Abstract Despite the common use of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) with adolescents, there is limited data supporting its validity with this population. The aims of the study were to investigate the psychometric properties of the GHQ-12 among high school students, to validate the GHQ-12 against the gold standard of a diagnostic interview, and to suggest a threshold score for detecting depressive and anxiety disorders. Six hundred and fifty-four high school students from years 10 to 12 (ages 15–18) completed the GHQ-12 (Likert scored) and the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV-Test Revision (DSM-IV-TR). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted. The mean GHQ-12 score for the total sample was 9.9 (S.D. = 5.4). Results from the ROC curve indicated that the GHQ-12 performed better than chance at identifying depressive and anxiety disorders (area under the curve (AUC) = 0.781). A GHQ-12 threshold score of 9/10 for males and 10/11 for females was found to be optimal. Given the significant proportion of mental illness among high school students, there may be a need to introduce screening for mental illnesses as part of the school curriculum. This can assist with the early identification and enable low stigma preventive intervention within the school environment.