RT Journal Article
T1 Use of the hospital anxiety and depression scale in spanish caregivers
A1 Sánchez López, María Pilar
A1 Limiñana-Gras, Rosa María
A1 Colodro-Conde, Lucía
A1 Cuéllar-Flores, Isabel
AB BACKGROUNDThe Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is widely used in the assessment of anxiety and depression, but there are scarce data about its psychometric properties in caregivers of older relatives.OBJECTIVEThe goal of this study was to analyse the factor structure of the HADS to verify its suitability to assess emotional symptomatology in family caregivers of old people, its internal consistency and confirming its relation with the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and an index of disease and physical complaints.METHODSOne hundred and seventy-five family caregivers (25 men and 150 women) aged 32-86, who were taking care of at least one older person in a situation of dependence, were recruited for this study. A descriptive, comparative, correlational design was employed. The scientific adequacy of the questionnaire and its structure were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis. The scores obtained in the GHQ and in an index of disease and physical complaints were used as external criteria to assess the adequacy of the HADS for caregivers.RESULTSHigher levels of anxiety and depression than in the normal population were obtained. The reliability/internal validity of the questionnaire was adequate. A bifactor model, with one subscale for anxiety and one for depression, provides the best fit to the data. The subscales were related to GHQ-12 and index of diseases/physical complaints.CONCLUSIONSThe HADS was shown to be useful to assess the presence of anxiety and depression in family caregivers, and the original two-dimensional model is the most adequate.
SN 1471-6712
YR 2015
FD 2015-12
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/24422
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/24422
LA eng
NO Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad
DS Docta Complutense
RD 30 abr 2024