[Anxiety and depression at work. the A/D Goldberg Questionnaire].

The Italian version of a short anxiety and depression questionnaire developed by Goldberg et al. (1988) was applied to 1918 health care workers during periodical medical surveillance at work. Internal consistency reliability coefficient (Cronbach's alpha) value was 0.82 for anxiety scale (A), and 0.78 for depression scale (D); both scales can be retained "good". The factor structure of the two scales was examined through use of the factor analysis technique. The anxiety scale showed an homogenous pattern: a significant percentage of the variance (41.5%) was explained by a single summative factor which included all the items. Varimax orthogonal rotation of the D-scale variables yielded two factors, both typical of depression: reduced activity (6 items, 28% of variance), and poor self-image (3 items, 22% of variance). The scales would be used by occupational health physicians in medical surveillance as indicators of stress levels.