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Method effects associated with negatively and positively worded items on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): results from a cross-sectional survey with a representative sample of Catalonian workers.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:Recent studies into the factorial structure of the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) have shown that it was best represented by a single substantive factor when method effects associated with negatively worded (NW) items are considered. The purpose of the present study was to examine the presence of method effects, and their relationships with demographic covariates, associated with positively worded (PW) and/or NW items. DESIGN:A cross-sectional, observational study to compare a comprehensive set of confirmatory factor models, including method effects associated with PW and/or NW items with GHQ-12 responses. SETTING:Representative sample of all employees living in Catalonia (Spain). PARTICIPANTS:3050 participants (44.6% women) who responded the Second Catalonian Survey of Working Conditions. RESULTS:A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the best fitting model was a unidimensional model with two additional uncorrelated method factors associated with PW and NW items. Furthermore, structural equation modelling (SEM) revealed that method effects were differentially related to both the sex and age of the respondents. CONCLUSION:Individual differences related to sex and age can help to identify respondents who are prone to answering PW and NW items differently. Consequently, it is desirable that both the constructs of interest as well as the effects of method factors are considered in SEM models as a means of avoiding the drawing of inaccurate conclusions about the relationships between the substantive factors.

SUBMITTER: Rodrigo MF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6924827 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Method effects associated with negatively and positively worded items on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): results from a cross-sectional survey with a representative sample of Catalonian workers.

Rodrigo Maria F MF Molina J Gabriel JG Losilla Josep-Maria JM Vives Jaume J Tomás José M JM

BMJ open 20191128 11

<h4>Objective</h4>Recent studies into the factorial structure of the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) have shown that it was best represented by a single substantive factor when method effects associated with negatively worded (NW) items are considered. The purpose of the present study was to examine the presence of method effects, and their relationships with demographic covariates, associated with positively worded (PW) and/or NW items.<h4>Design</h4>A cross-section ...[more]

PMID: 31784441

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Project description:BackgroundReducing the number of items in a questionnaire while maintaining relevant information is important as it is associated with advantages such as higher respondent engagement and reduced response error. However, in health care, after the original design, an a posteriori check of the included items in a questionnaire is often overlooked or considered to be of minor importance. When conducted, this is often based on a single selected method. We argue that before finalizing any lifestyle questionnaire, a posteriori validation should always be conducted using multiple approaches to ensure the robustness of the results.ObjectiveThe objectives of this study are to compare the results of two statistical methods for item reduction (variance inflation factor [VIF] and factor analysis [FA]) in a lifestyle questionnaire constructed by combining items from different sources and analyze the different results obtained from the 2 methods and the conclusions that can be made about the original items.MethodsData were collected from 79 participants (heterogeneous in age and sex) with a high risk of metabolic syndrome working in a financial company based in Tokyo. The lifestyle questionnaire was constructed by combining items (asked with daily, weekly, and monthly frequency) from multiple validated questionnaires and other selected questions. Item reduction was conducted using VIF and exploratory FA. Adequacy tests were used to check the data distribution and sampling adequacy.ResultsAmong the daily and weekly questions, both VIF and FA identified redundancies in sleep-related items. Among the monthly questions, both approaches identified redundancies in stress-related items. However, the number of items suggested for reduction often differed: VIF suggested larger reductions than FA for daily questions but fewer reductions for weekly questions. Adequacy tests always confirmed that the structural detection was adequate for the considered items.ConclusionsAs expected, our analyses showed that VIF and FA produced both similar and different findings, suggesting that questionnaire designers should consider using multiple methods for item reduction. Our findings using both methods indicate that many questions, especially those related to sleep, are redundant, indicating that the considered lifestyle questionnaire can be shortened.

Dataset Information

Method effects associated with negatively and positively worded items on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): results from a cross-sectional survey with a representative sample of Catalonian workers.

Publications

Method effects associated with negatively and positively worded items on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): results from a cross-sectional survey with a representative sample of Catalonian workers.

Similar Datasets

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