Psychometric properties of worry and anxiety measures in a sample of african american and caucasian older adults.

Shrestha S, Ramos K, Fletcher TL, Kraus-Schuman C, Stanley MA, Ramsey D, Amspoker AB. Psychometric properties of worry and anxiety measures in a sample of african american and caucasian older adults. Aging & mental health. 2020 Feb 1; 24(2):315-321.

Related HSR&D Project(s)

• IIR 17-241 – Anxiety diagnostic accuracy in VA primary care mental health integration settings: Identifying barriers and facilitators to inform a learning health care system

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions

Search for Abstract from PubMed

---

Abstract:

The aim of our study was to examine the psychometric properties of commonly used anxiety and worry assessment measures in a community-based, low-income sample of African American and Caucasian older adults. African American and Caucasian participants from three community-based clinical trials testing treatments for late-life worry/anxiety were pooled to examine the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire-Abbreviated (PSWQ-A), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) and Geriatric Anxiety Inventory-short form (GAI-SF). All three measures demonstrated an adequate fit to a one-factor structure. Internal consistency reliability was adequate for the PSWQ-A and GAD-7 in the total sample and racial subgroups but was acceptable for the GAI-SF only in the African American subgroup. The PSWQ-A and GAD-7 demonstrated good convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity. The GAI-SF has adequate convergent and divergent validity in the African American subgroup. Our study offers preliminary evidence for use of the PSWQ-A and GAD-7 for assessment of anxiety in a sample of low-income, predominantly African American participants. These measures may facilitate identification of anxiety symptoms, which are often overlooked in this population. More research is needed to examine the accuracy of these measures in other racial/ethnic groups.