The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory in primary care: applicability and psychometric characteristics of the original and short form

Abstract

Background: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has negative implications for people's lives, but is often underdiagnosed in the elderly. There is a shortage of instruments to assess geriatric anxiety. Objectives: To analyze the applicability and psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) and its short form (GAI-SF) within primary care. Methods: Fifty-five seniors were classified as non-demented by a multidisciplinary panel. The protocol included the GAI, the Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20), the Depression Scale D-10, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Bayer Scale for Activities of Daily Living (B-ADL) and the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE). A sub-sample also completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Results: The GAI and GAI-SF showed good internal consistency (0.89; 0.62, respectively) and test-retest stability (0.58, 0.97). The GAI and GAI-SF correlated significantly with the 0.55) and BAI (0.75, 0.58). Discussion: The psychometric characteristics of the Brazilian versions of the GAI and GAI-SF suggest these instruments are suitable for application in the Brazilian elderly population within the primary care setting.

A Systematic Review of the Psychometric Properties of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory

“…Retest reliability was assessed in only 11 studies. Apart from the two lowest coefficients found for the long form (r = .53 and .58; Kneebone et al, 2016;Silva et al, 2016), the lowest coefficient was .85. The two studies that presented the lowest coefficients also exhibited poor methodological quality for the reliability assessment according to the COSMIN checklist.…”

“…Test-retest coefficients (mostly Pearson's r and the intraclass correlation [ICC]) ranged between .53 to .99 with a mean of .79 for the GAI, and between .80 to .97 with a mean of .90 for the short form (see Table 2). Aside from the two lowest coefficients of the long form (r = .53 and .58; Kneebone, Fife-Schaw, Lincoln, & Harder, 2016;Silva et al, 2016), the lowest coefficient was .85. These large differences in the coefficients obtained are difficult to explain, and authors did not comment on their results.…”

“…These large differences in the coefficients obtained are difficult to explain, and authors did not comment on their results. In general, the interval of time between the two administrations of the scale was one to two weeks, except in the study of Silva et al (2016) in which the interval was 30 weeks. Surprisingly, this longer interval generated a coefficient of r = .58 for the GAI and the highest coefficient for the short form (r = .97).…”

Improvement in gait performance in oldest-old with chronic pain, after acupuncture intervention

“…14 The study participants were evaluated for the presence of pain, location of pain and intensity, Body Mass Index (BMI), daily activities, Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), changes in gait, movement limitation, joint instability, joint stiffness, dizziness, number of falls and falls in the last 3 months. 12,15,16 Several studies have analyzed the gait performance using walkways with electronic pressure sensors. Using the devices, were possible to calculate, among other variables, the waking speed, steps size, cadence (number of steps per minute) and the percentage of dual phase support.…”

Characteristics of anxiety in patients of older age groups with different types of mild cognitive disorder

“…Нельзя не сказать и о том, что тревога при формировании когнитивного снижения может детерминировать аддиктивное поведение, предрасполагая к употреблению алкоголя и транквилизаторов, негативно влияющих на познавательные функции [13].…”