Application of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory-Chinese Version (GAI-CV) to older people in Beijing communities. (20th November 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yan, Yue; Xin, Tao; Wang, Dahua; Tang, Dan
• Is Part Of: International psychogeriatrics. Volume 26:Number 3(2014:Mar.)
• Page Start: 517
• Page End: 523
• Publication Date: 2013-11-20
• Subjects: older adults anxiety, -- Geriatric Anxiety Inventory-Chinese Version (GAI-CV), -- item response theory, -- related factors; Geriatric psychiatry -- Periodicals; 618.9768905
• DOI: 10.1017/S1041610213002007
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1041-6102

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Background: The Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) was developed to assess anxiety in older adults. The objectives of this work were as follows: (a) to analyze the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the GAI (GAI-CV), and (b) to explore the extent of anxiety and related factors in the elderly Chinese residents of Beijing. Methods: Participants in this study included 1, 047 people (59.4% female) more than 60 years old who were living in the community. They were randomly selected from 15 communities in Beijing. Basic information was collected. Anxiety was measured using the GAI-CV, the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Results: The GAI-CV exhibited good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.94) and demonstrated good concurrent validity against the SAS ( r = 0.52, p = 0.018) and the BAI ( r = 0.560, p = 0.000). Item response theory (IRT) analyses showed that the items of the GAI-CV exhibited high difficulty (0.97–2) and discrimination parameters (1.91–5.33). The items exhibited information parameters greater than 1.25 with the exceptions of items 2, 12, and 18. The GAI-CV scores were significantly associated with gender, age, and chronic disease. However, no significant differences due to marriage or education were found. Conclusions: The GAI is a new scale that was specifically designed to measure anxiety in older people. The results of this study suggest that the GAI-CV had good psychometric properties, but some items need to be modified. IRT analyses indicated that the GAI-CV provided good measures of anxiety across the moderately high to very high levels. The GAI-CV may be a useful instrument for further research studies aimed at analyzing high-level anxiety among older adults in China.