Psychometric properties and health correlates of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory in Australian community-residing older women

Abstract

Objective: To assess the psychometric properties and health correlates of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) in a cohort of Australian community-residing older women.

Method: Cross-sectional study of a population-based cohort of women aged 60 years and over (N = 286).

Results: The GAI exhibited sound internal consistency and demonstrated good concurrent validity against the state half of the Spielberger State Trait Anxiety Inventory and the neuroticism domain of the NEO five-factor inventory. GAI score was significantly associated with self-reported sleep difficulties and perceived memory impairment, but not with age or cognitive function. Women with current DSM-IV Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) had significantly higher GAI scores than women without such a history. In this cohort, the optimal cut-point to detect current GAD was 8/9. Although the GAI was designed to have few somatic items, women with a greater number of general medical problems or who rated their general health as worse had higher GAI scores.

Conclusion: The GAI is a new scale designed specifically to measure anxiety in older people. In this Australian cohort of older women, the instrument had sound psychometric properties.

Keywords:

• anxiety
• women's health
• aged
• aged, 80 and over
• generalized anxiety disorder
• geriatric anxiety inventory
• ROC analysis

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by Australian National Health and Medical Research Council project grant ID456182. Dr Byrne is also supported by the Alzheimer's Association (Chicago), IIRG-07-59015 and the JO and JR Wicking Trust. The Longitudinal Assessment of Women (LAW Study) was funded by the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Research Foundation. Christine Egan, Alison Green, Ann Hanson, Sheila O’Neill, Ann-Maree Selwood, Karen Spatuzzo, Ada Lo, Cynthia Ramirez, Kate Thompson and Antony Winkel provided essential assistance. We thank the women of the LAW Study for their continuing participation.