Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS): performance in a clinical sample in relation to PHQ-9 and GAD-7

Abstract

Purpose This study assesses the construct validity and sensitivity to change of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS) as an outcome measure in the treatment of common mental disorders (CMD) in primary care settings. Methods 127 participants attending up to 5 sessions of therapy for CMD in primary care self-rated the SWEMWBS, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scales. SWEMWBS’s construct validity and sensitivity to change was evaluated against the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 across multiple time points in two ways: correlation coefficients were calculated between the measures at each time point; and sensitivity to change over time was assessed using repeated measures ANOVA. Results Score distributions on SWEMWBS, but not PHQ-9 and GAD-7, met criteria for normality. At baseline, 92.9% (118/127) of participants scored above clinical threshold on either PHQ-9 or GAD-7. Correlations between SWEMWBS and PHQ-9 scores were calculated at each respective time point and ranged from 0.601 to 0.793. Correlations between SWEMWBS and GAD-7 scores were calculated similarly and ranged from 0.630 to 0.743. Significant improvements were seen on all three scales over time. Changes in PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were curvilinear with greatest improvement between sessions 1 and 2. Change in SWEMWBS was linear over the five sessions. Conclusions This exploratory study suggests that SWEMWBS is acceptable as a CMD outcome measure in primary care settings, both in terms of construct validity and sensitivity to change. Given patient preference for positively over negatively framed measures and statistical advantages of measures which are normally distributed, SWEMWBS could be used as an alternative to PHQ-9 and GAD-7 in monitoring and evaluating CMD treatment.

‘I think it does just opens it up and … you're not hiding it anymore’: Trainee clinical psychologists' experiences of self‐disclosing mental health difficulties

“…Results from the SWEMWBS showed that participants' well‐being was comparable to that of the general population. No participants exceeded the cut‐off for probable depression and anxiety (Shah et al, in press).…”

Academic Stress and Mental Well-Being in College Students: Correlations, Affected Groups, and COVID-19

“…A survey was developed that included all questions from the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being (Tennant et al, 2007 ; Stewart-Brown and Janmohamed, 2008 ) and from the Perception of Academic Stress Scale (Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015 ). The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale is a seven-item scale designed to measure mental well-being and positive mental health (Tennant et al, 2007 ; Fung, 2019 ; Shah et al, 2021 ). The Perception of Academic Stress Scale is an 18-item scale designed to assess sources of academic stress perceived by individuals and measures three main academic stressors: academic expectations, workload and examinations, and academic self-perceptions of students (Bedewy and Gabriel, 2015 ).…”

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic in Mauritius: mental well-being and dependence on Facebook

“…The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) which specifically addresses addiction to the social networking site has been adapted to the Indian context [11,46]. Likewise, the Short Warwick Edinburg Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS) has been prominently used and translated in several Indian studies both scales satisfy the requirements in the local context given the high proportion of Indo-Mauritians approximating 66% and the similarities between the two cultures [71,83]. Sociodemographic data of the participants were examined in the first section of the questionnaire with the addition of items such as educational level and income.…”