Miodraga Stefanovska Petkovska¹, Marjan I. Bojadziev¹, Vesna Velikj Stefanovska<sup>2*

1</sup>University American College, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia; ²Institute of Epidemiology and Biostatistics with Medical Informatics, Medical Faculty, Ss Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

 

AIM: The aim of the study is to analyze the internal consistency; validity and factor structure of the twelve item General Health Questionnaire for the Macedonian general population.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data came from nationally representative sample of 1603 randomly selected Macedonians all aged 18 years or older.

RESULTS: The mean GHQ score in the general sample was found to be 7.9 (SD = 4.3). The results revealed a higher GHQ score among women (M = 8.91, SD = 4.5) compared to men (M = 6.89; SD = 4.2). The participants from the rural areas obtained a lower GHQ score (M = 7.55, SD = 3.8) compared to participants coming from the urban areas (M = 9.37, SD = 4.1). The principal component analysis with oblique rotation (direct oblimin) with maximum likelihood procedure solution was performed and the results yielded a three factor solution which jointly accounted for 57.17% of the total variance: Factor I named social management (items 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8); Factor II stress (items 2, 5 and 9) and Factor III named self-confidence (items 10, 11 and 12). Its factor structure is in line with representative research from other population groups.

CONCLUSION: The GHQ-12 can be used effectively for assessment of the overall psychological well-being and detection of non-psychotic psychiatric problems among the Macedonian population.
 

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Citation: Stefanovska Petkovska M, Bojadziev MI, Velikj Stefanovska V. Reliability, Validity and Factor Structure of the 12-Item General Health Questionnaire among General Population. OA Maced J Med Sci. http://dx.doi.org/10.3889/oamjms.2015.075
Key words: General Health Questionnaire; factor structure; reliability; psychological health.
*Correspondence: Prof. Vesna VELIK STEFANOVSKA, MD, MSc, PhD. Institute of Epidemiology and Biostatistics with Medical Informatics, Medical Faculty, Ss Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Vodnjanska 31, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. Tel.: (+) 389 70 254 621. Fax.: (+) 389 2 3086 412. E-mail: vesnamia@t-home.mk
Received: 14-Apr-2015; Revised: 07-Jun-2015; Accepted: 08-Jun-2015; Online first: 25-Jun-2015
Copyright: © 2015 Miodraga Stefanovska Petkovska, Marjan I. Bojadziev, Vesna Velikj Stefanovska  This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
 

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