Factor structure of the Subjective Well-being under Neuroleptic treatment Scale-short form in schizophrenic outpatients: Five factors or only one?

Abstract

Backround and aim: The Subjective Well-Being under Neuroleptics Scale, short form (SWNS), is a self-report measure that evaluates the states of well-being of schizophrenia patients using antipsychotic drugs independently from psychopathology of disease. This study examined the factor structure of the Turkish version of the scale using high-level statistical analyses. Methods: The SWNS was translated into Turkish and applied to 103 schizophrenic patients. A type of multi-trait–multi-method (MTMM) confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to determine the factor structure of the Turkish version of the scale. Results: The results of factor analysis of the SWNS were incompatible with the factor structure of the original scale. A set of MTMM analyses showed distinct method effects for both positive and negative item wording in the scale. In light of these findings, the factor structure of the SWNS was determined as having a one-dimensional structure, with bias due to item wording. Conclusions: The results of the present investigation indicated that the sub-factors of the SWNS failed to emerge from the data. This study is the first to show that there is an urgent need for further examination of the factor structure of the SWNS with regard to method effects. This issue has important implications for the use of sub-factors by both researchers and practitioners.

• Antipsychotic treatment
• Factor structure
• Subjective well-being
• Subjective Well-being under Neuroleptic Scale
• SWNS

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the residents in the Department of Psychiatry, Ondokuz Mayis University, School of Medicine, Samsun, Turkey, who kindly provided the outpatient facilities where the study took place. We thank Dr. Isıl Zabun Korkmaz and Dr.Sema Mor, who kindly contributed to obtaining the data necessary for our analysis.

Funding source

The study was not supported by any Institute.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest regarding this study. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Contributors

Ozan Pazvantoğlu and Alp Üçok have designed the study and wrote the protocol. Gökhan Sarısoy and Ömer Böke contributed to the data collection and carried out the clinical assessments. Ömer Faruk Şimşek and Ömer Aydemir performed the statistical analyses. Ozan Pazvantoğlu and Ömer Faruk Şimşek wrote the first draft of the manuscript and prepared the manuscript for publication. All authors approved the final version.