title: Development and initial validation of a self-report assessment tool for anxiety among older adults: the Geriatric Anxiety Scale.
abstract: Anxiety is a common experience among older adults and can be a cause for major clinical concern. Brief and psychometrically sound screening instruments are needed to detect anxiety in later life. The purposes of this study were to develop a brief, self-report measure of anxiety for use with older adults (called the Geriatric Anxiety Scale [GAS]) and to report on its preliminary psychometrics. The GAS includes 30 self-report items of which 25 items represent three common domains of anxiety symptoms among older adults (cognitive, somatic, and affective) and 5 items represent common content areas of worry. The GAS total score and subscale scores demonstrated good internal reliability in community dwelling and in clinical samples. In addition, correlation analyses provided solid evidence of convergent and construct validity for the GAS in both samples. Present results support the preliminary validity of the GAS for clinical and research purposes. We conclude with a discussion of limitations and future research topics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO 80918, United States. dsegal@uccs.edu
authors.forename: Daniel L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Segal
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: June
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Payne
authors.forename: Frederick L
authors.initials: FL
authors.lastname: Coolidge
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yochim
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires