Psychometric properties of the French Canadian version of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory

ABSTRACT

Background: The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) and a short form of this instrument (GAI-SF) were developed to assess the severity of anxiety symptoms in older adults in order to compensate for the lack of validated screening tools adapted to the elderly population. This study examined the psychometric properties of the French Canadian version of the GAI, in its complete (GAI-FC) and short form (GAI-FC-SF).

Method: A total of 331 community-dwelling seniors between 65 and 92 years old participated in this study.

Results: Both the GAI-FC and the GAI-FC-SF have sound psychometric properties with, respectively, a high internal consistency (α = .94 and .83), an adequate convergent validity (r = .50 to .86 with instruments known to evaluate constructs similar to the GAI or related to anxiety), a good test–retest reliability (r = .89 and .85), in addition to a single-factor structure.

Conclusions: The results support the use of both the GAI-FC and the GAI-FC-SF. The GAI-FC-SF seems to be an interesting alternative to the GAI-FC as a screening tool when time available for assessment is limited.

KEYWORDS:

• Geriatric Anxiety Inventory
• assessment instruments
• older adults
• anxiety
• anxiety disorders

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the participants as well as all people who participated in the data collection: Catherine Gaudreau (subgroup A); Claudie Bax-D'Auteuil, Camie Duhamel, Audrey Dupuis, Cindy Roussy and Caroline Dussault (subgroup B); Élisabeth Beaunoyer (subgroup C). The authors also thank Noémie Heider for her assistance with translation of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interests was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was conducted while Alexandra Champagne held scolarships from the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé [file number 27626] and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [grant number 130058].