Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T23:45:03.722Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Responses of Australian patients with gynaecological disorders to the General Health Questionnaire: a factor analytic study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

A. Worsley ,
W. A. W. Walters  and
E. C. Wood
A. Worsley*
Affiliation:
Division of Human Nutrition, CSIRO, Adelaide, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
W. A. W. Walters
Affiliation:
Division of Human Nutrition, CSIRO, Adelaide, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
E. C. Wood
Affiliation:
Division of Human Nutrition, CSIRO, Adelaide, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr A. Worsley, Division of Human Nutrition, CSIRO, Kintore Avenue, Adelaide, South Australia 5000, Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

One hundred and twenty-seven out-patients attending a gynaecology clinic completed the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ, 60-item version) and a role problems checklist (RPCL). Principal factors analysis of the GHQ yielded 8 factors which were named: poor performance (which accounted for 63·3 % of total variance), depression-anxiety, sleep-disturbance, anhedonia-anergia, loss of confidence, general illness, social dysfunction and headache. These results were compared with previous principal components analyses of the GHQ (Goldberg, 1972; Goldberg et al. 1976).

A multiple regression analysis indicated that age and 7 of the 8 factors were significantly related to the number of role problems reported by the patients. However, it appears that psychiatric distress (as measured by the GHQ) and role problems were only related to a small degree (multiple R2 = 12·69% only).

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 1978 , pp. 131 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ballinger, C. R. (1975). Psychiatric morbidity and the menopause; screening of a general population sample. British Medical Journal iii, 344–346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burvill, P. W. (1975). Mental health in isolated new mining towns in Australia. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 9, 77–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohler, B. J., Greenbaum, H. U., Weiss, J. L., Robbins, D. M., Shader, R. I., Gallant, D. & Hartmann, C. R. (1974). Social role performance and psychopathology among recently hospitalized and non-hospitalized mothers. II. Correlates with life stress and self-reported psychopathology. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 159 (2), 81–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1972). The Detection of Psychiatric Illness by Questionnaire. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Goldberg, D. P. (1974). Psychiatric disorders. Lancet, Nov. 23, 1245–1247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, D. P., Rickels, K., Downing, R. & Hesbacher, P. (1976). A comparison of two psychiatric screening tests. British Journal of Psychiatry 129, 61–67.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gove, W. R. (1972). The relationship between sex roles, marital status and mental illness. Social Forces 51, 34–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gove, W. R. & Tudor, J. F. (1973). Adult sex roles and mental illness. American Journal of Sociology 78 (4), 812–835.Google Scholar
Howarth, E. (1976). Were Catell's ‘personality sphere’ factors correctly identified in the first instance? British Journal of Psychology 67 (2), 213–230.Google Scholar
Nie, N. H., Hull, C. H., Jenkins, J. G., Steinbrenner, K. & Bent, D. H. (1975). Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. McGraw-Hill: New York.Google Scholar
Nunnally, J. (1969). Psychometric Theory. Wiley: New York.Google Scholar
Overall, J. E. & Klett, C. J. (1972). Applied Multivariate Analysis. McGraw-Hill: New York.Google Scholar
Tennant, C. (1977). The General Health Questionnaire — A valid index of psychological impairment in Australian populations. Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Epidemiology and Research in Community Health (to be published).Google Scholar
Veldman, D.J. (1967). Fortran Programming for the Behavioural Sciences. Holt, Rinehart & Winston: New York.Google Scholar
Worsley, A. & Gribbin, C. C. (1977). A factor analytic study of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (in the press).Google Scholar
Worsley, A., Walters, W. A. W. & Wood, E. C. (1977). Screening for psychosocial disturbance amongst gynaecology patients. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (in the press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar