The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Multiple applications of the GHQ-12 in a general population sample: an investigation of long-term retest effects
Abstract
Background Previous studies have indicated that the 60-, 30-, 28- and 12-item versions of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) are liable to retest effects, especially when administered multiple times with short intervals. The aim of this study was to examine data from a large general population sample for evidence of any retest effects over 7 yearly applications.Methods A core panel was drawn from the British Household Panel Survey of those respondents who had completed the GHQ-12 seven times from 1991 to 1997 (n = 4749). The panel results were compared with cross-sectional data from the Health Surveys for England for the same years. The analyses were conducted separately for males and females broken down by age groupings.Results No evidence of retest effects was found. For males, the panel results did not diverge significantly from the cross-sectional results. For females, the panel results did indicate a divergence from the cross-sectional results, but this was due to the age composition of the panel and differing age trajectories.Conclusion The GHQ-12 is a consistent and reliable instrument when used in general population samples with relatively long intervals between applications.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“As of May, 2020, this weight was released as a beta-version and slight future refinements of the weighting models are possible, but unlikely to have a substantial effect on results.14”
From Mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal probability sample survey of the UK population (2020) · cites this paper as [14]
Citations
Cites
Still being checked.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Pierce, M., Hope, H., Ford, T., Hatch, S., Hotopf, M., John, A., Kontopantelis, E., Webb, R., Wessely, S., McManus, S., et al. (2020) · The Lancet Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30308-4 · Cited by 2,621
Aromaa, A. J., & Koskinen, S. V. P. (2004) · Cited by 583
Epidemiology of Psychological Distress
Drapeau, A., Marchand, A., & Beaulieu‐Prévost, D. (2012) · InTech eBooks · doi:10.5772/30872 · Cited by 612
Saravanan, P., Chau, W. ‐., Roberts, N., Vedhara, K., Greenwood, R., & Dayan, C. M. (2002) · Clinical Endocrinology · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2265.2002.01654.x · Cited by 514
Montazeri, A., Harirchi, A. M., Shariati, M., Garmaroudi, G., Ebadi, M., & Fateh, A. (2003) · Health and Quality of Life Outcomes · doi:10.1186/1477-7525-1-66 · Cited by 509
Metadata
- Authors
- Pevalin, D. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Essex (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Pevalin, D. J.
- ORCID
- Pevalin, D. J.
- Venue
- Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
- Published
- 2000-12-13
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 508-512
- ISSN
- 0933-7954 (ISSN-L)
- 1433-9285
- OpenAlex
- W2019521579
- Cited by
- 275
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 9.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Open Access at Essex (University of Essex) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Health Systems, Economic Evaluations, Quality of Life
- Keywords
- GHQ-12, General Health Questionnaire, retest effects, repeated measures, general population mental health, British Household Panel Survey, sex differences, age differences, age trajectories
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Mental Disorders, England, Female, Health Surveys, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reproducibility of Results, Effect Modifier, Epidemiologic, Case-Control Studies
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
