Assessing anxiety symptom severity in Rwandese adolescents: cross-gender measurement invariance of GAD-7

作者全名："Niwenahisemo, Lisa Cynthia; Hong, Su; Kuang, Li"

作者地址："[Niwenahisemo, Lisa Cynthia; Hong, Su; Kuang, Li] Chongqing Med Univ, Affiliated Hosp 1, Dept Psychiat, Chongqing, Peoples R China"

通信作者："Hong, S; Kuang, L (通讯作者)，Chongqing Med Univ, Affiliated Hosp 1, Dept Psychiat, Chongqing, Peoples R China."

来源：FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY

ESI学科分类：PSYCHIATRY/PSYCHOLOGY

WOS号：WOS:001190027000001

JCR分区：Q2

影响因子：3.2

年份：2024

卷号：15

期号：　

开始页：　

结束页：　

文献类型：Article

关键词：multiple group comparison; measurement invariance; psychometric properties; generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7); Rwanda; adolescents

摘要："Background Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health problems experienced by adolescents worldwide because of their evident significant impact on their quality of life and functioning. The generalized anxiety disorder item (GAD-7) was manufactured to identify the severity of self-reported anxiety symptoms. Efforts to address and screen for mental health problems in Rwanda have been limited, and the importance of screening for anxiety disorders is high. The primary aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Kinyarwanda version of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder GAD-7, and then test the measurement invariance of the GAD-7 by gender.Methods We used the Rwandese version of GAD-7 among secondary school students in Kigali city (n=1813). Measurement invariance of the GAD-7 across gender and report on anxiety symptom severity prevalence. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to examine measurement invariance.Results Our findings demonstrated that in the sample of 1813 adolescents aged between 12 and 17 years, generalized anxiety symptoms prevalence rates were higher in females (46.4%) than males (n= 29.8%) GAD-7 demonstrated good reliability and validity coefficients with a Cronbach's alpha of .077 and KMO and Bartlett test of Sphericity = 0.835. In addition to these psychometric properties, the GAD-7 screening scale had equivalence for configural and metric invariance across groups with excellent fit indices, and we confirmed partial scalar invariance across groups.Conclusion The GAD-7 can be used in cross-group comparison of generalized anxiety disorder prevalence, and we acknowledge that full scalar invariance is generally difficult to confirm, especially due to gender differences. We recommend that future studies further investigate populations living in rural areas and conduct trials that will focus on anxiety-specific treatment in Rwandan Clinical health care centers to determine the diagnostic accuracy of this screening tool."

基金机构："Nursing Research Fund of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University [HLJJ2022-20]; Chongqing medical scientific research project (Joint Project of Chongqing Health Commission and Science and Technology Bureau) [2023MSXM111]; Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing, China [CSTB2023NSCQ-MSX0340]"

基金资助正文："We would like to thank the high school students in Kigali City and the University of Rwanda for their collaboration in the conducting of the survey.r The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This research was funded by the Nursing Research Fund of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (HLJJ2022-20), Chongqing medical scientific research project (Joint Project of Chongqing Health Commission and Science and Technology Bureau) (2023MSXM111), Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing, China (CSTB2023NSCQ-MSX0340)."