The Factor Structure of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30) in Japanese Middle-Aged and Elderly Residents

Abstract

We conducted Goldberg's 30-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) on 1,216 Japanese general population aged 40-92. Among them, 9.8% of males and 13.7% of females scored over the cut-off point which is used to indicate minor psychiatric disorders. Factor analysis was carried out using the Likert method and eight factors labelled as follows were selected: depression, anxiety and tension, anergia, interpersonal dysfunction, difficulty in coping, insomnia, anhedonia and social avoidance. The mean value of the standardized scores for each age-sex group indicated that changes in sex-age social roles with age affect the mental health of the general population.

Work Environment and Mental Health Status Assessed by the General Health Questionnaire in Female Japanese Doctors

“…Ohta et al 17,18) reported a prevalence rate of 13.7-17.4% in the general female population, and Shigemi et al 19,20) with these previous reports, the prevalence of high GHQ-30 scores in the female doctors in this study (41.6%) was high. Researchers in the UK have shown that psychological distress levels among doctors are higher than that of the general population 3,22) .…”

Associations between physical strength, cerebral function and mental health in independent-living elderly Japanese women

“…However, our results in independent-living elderly women showed significant positive correlations between age and severe depression and social dysfunction. Jorm reported that aging is associated with an intrinsic reduction in susceptibility to anxiety and depression (33), and Ohta observed that depression increased with age although marked changes were not found in the GHQ scores (34). However, we found a positive correlation between age and depression scores in the GHQ sub-scale, although no correlation was found between age and anxiety/insomnia scores.…”

Graduate Student Blues

“…As no study has assessed the emotional disturbance among Japanese graduate students nor among age matched young adults, in order to place the observed rate within the Japanese context we compared our findings to previously reported prevalence rates of other sub-populations in Japan using the same method. In a community sample of the middle-aged and elderly 12.3% suffered from Pallos,Yamada,and Okawa 9 JOURNAL OF COLLEGE STUDENT PSYCHOTHERAPY emotional disturbance (Ohta et al, 1995), meanwhile among employees in an electric company 37.8% (Shigemi et al, 1997). The highest prevalence rate was reported among evacuees of a volcanic eruption (Ohta et al, 2003), of them 45.6% of respondents were still suffering from emotional disturbance 44 months after the eruption.…”

“…The resulting factor structure was interpreted and factors labeled. Labels of the extracted factors were based on recommendations from the original authors (Goldberg & Williams, 1991) in line with existing factor analytic studies of GHQ-30 in Japan (Iwata et al, 1994;Ohta et al, 2003;Ohta et al, 1995;Takeuchi & Kitamura, 1991). The analysis was carried out on the raw data of Likert scores to avoid the loss of information.…”

“…The General Health Questionnaire was originally designed to be a self-administered screening test aimed at detecting emotional distress among respondents in community settings and non-psychiatric clinical settings (Goldberg & Williams, 1991). It has been recently the choice for screening community samples and sub-populations for emotional distress in Japan because of its simplicity and easy administration (Ohta et Pallos, Yamada, and Okawa 7 al., 2003;Ohta, Kawasaki, Araki, Mine, & Honda, 1995;Shigemi, Mino, Tsuda, Babazono, & Aoyama, 1997;Yasuda, Mino, Koda, & Ohara, 2002). The 30-item version of GHQ was chosen to analyze common symptoms of graduate students' emotional health as it focuses on psychosocial and psychological symptoms rather than somatic symptoms and it is the most commonly validated version (Goldberg & Williams, 1991).…”