[Brief version (15 items) of the General Health Questionnaire for opportune detection of psychological uneasiness in women].
OBJECTIVE
To propose a short version of the Goldberg's General Health Questionnaire that can be applied as a screening test in non-specialized in mental health public institutions.


METHODS
Women older than 18 years from Instituto Nacional de Perinatología consult. General Health Questionnaire application (30 items), during nine consecutive months. It was used the 7/8 cut-off point to differentiate between case and non-case patients. Descriptive, of factorial analysis, sensibility and specificity statistical process were used. An agreement analysis between versions was done, and the new version of 15 items was applied to an independent sample. With goodness-of-fit chi2 test, and to corroborate equality between both versions, proportions obtained were compared.


RESULTS
With 15 items it was generated an instrument that demonstrates its utility to screen psychological uneasiness cases, with a sensitivity of 0.988, specificity of 0.828 and a Cronbach's alpha of 0.910.


CONCLUSIONS
Short version of the General Health Questionnaire is a reliable instrument to timely identify psychological uneasiness in women, and to derive them to a mental health institution.
Morales Carmona
Francisco
F
Departamento de Psicología, Instituto Nacional de Perinatología Isidro Espinosa de los Reyes, México.
Pimentel Nieto
Diana
D
Sánchez Bravo
Claudia
C
Henales Almaraz
Consuelo
C
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005831:Genital Diseases, Female / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires