Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
Department of Psychology, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL.
Aging Ment Health. 2020 Feb;24(2):315-321. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2018.1544217. Epub 2019 Feb 27.
The aim of our study was to examine the psychometric properties of commonly used anxiety and worry assessment measures in a community-based, low-income sample of African American and Caucasian older adults. African American and Caucasian participants from three community-based clinical trials testing treatments for late-life worry/anxiety were pooled to examine the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire-Abbreviated (PSWQ-A), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Geriatric Anxiety Inventory-short form (GAI-SF). All three measures demonstrated an adequate fit to a one-factor structure. Internal consistency reliability was adequate for the PSWQ-A and GAD-7 in the total sample and racial subgroups but was acceptable for the GAI-SF only in the African American subgroup. The PSWQ-A and GAD-7 demonstrated good convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. The GAI-SF has adequate convergent and divergent validity in the African American subgroup. Our study offers preliminary evidence for use of the PSWQ-A and GAD-7 for assessment of anxiety in a sample of low-income, predominantly African American participants. These measures may facilitate identification of anxiety symptoms, which are often overlooked in this population. More research is needed to examine the accuracy of these measures in other racial/ethnic groups.
我们的研究旨在检验在一个以社区为基础的、低收入的非裔美国人和白种人老年人群体中，常用的焦虑和担忧评估测量工具的心理测量特性。从三项以社区为基础的临床试验中抽取的非裔美国人和白种人参与者，这些试验旨在测试治疗晚年焦虑/担忧的方法，用于检验宾夕法尼亚州担忧问卷简表（PSWQ-A）、广泛性焦虑障碍 7 项量表（GAD-7）和老年焦虑量表简表（GAI-SF）的因子结构、内部一致性信度，以及聚合、区分和预测效度。所有三种测量方法都在一个因素结构上表现出了足够的拟合。在总样本和种族亚组中，PSWQ-A 和 GAD-7 的内部一致性信度是足够的，但 GAI-SF 仅在非裔美国人群体中是可以接受的。PSWQ-A 和 GAD-7 表现出了良好的聚合、区分和预测效度。GAI-SF 在非裔美国人群体中具有足够的聚合和发散效度。我们的研究为在一个以低收入为主的非裔美国参与者样本中使用 PSWQ-A 和 GAD-7 评估焦虑提供了初步证据。这些测量方法可以帮助识别出在这个人群中经常被忽视的焦虑症状。需要更多的研究来检验这些方法在其他种族/族裔群体中的准确性。
