Positively worded items have responses of “better than usual,” “same as usual,” “less than usual,” and “much less than usual,” while responses to negatively worded items are “not at all,” “no more than usual,” “rather more than usual,” and “much more than usual.” Scoring is along a 4-point ordinal scale (0 to 3) with higher scores suggestive of more distress. The GHQ-12 covers several domains associated with a person’s psychological well-being and is worded in such a way as to comprise six positive and six negative items concerning the past few weeks of a person’s life and includes such items as “Have you recently felt capable of making decisions about things?” while, negative items include “Have you recently felt constantly under strain?” (Hu, Stewart-Brown, Twigg, & Weich, 2007).
The GHQ-12 was introduced in 1988 and is now considered one of the most extensively used outcome measures across a number of health professions (del Pilar Sánchez-López & Dresch, 2008). Designed for the general population, available versions include the 60-, 30-, 28-, and the 12-item (GHQ-12) versions. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) by Goldberg (1976) is a self-administered questionnaire designed to detect persons that are symptomatic or at risk of developing the common, non-psychotic mental health problems associated with depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, and social dysfunction (Jackson, 2007).
C HAPTER 66: G ENERAL H EALTH Q UESTIONNAIRE (GHQ-12)
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