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Application of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory-Chinese Version (GAI-CV) to older people in Beijing communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2013

Yue Yan ,
Tao Xin ,
Dahua Wang  and
Dan Tang
Yue Yan
Affiliation:
School of Psychology of Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China Institute of Developmental Psychology of Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Tao Xin*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology of Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China Institute of Developmental Psychology of Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Dahua Wang
Affiliation:
School of Psychology of Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China Institute of Developmental Psychology of Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Dan Tang
Affiliation:
Center for Population and Development Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Xin Tao, School of Psychology of Beijing Normal University, 19#, Xinjiekouwai Street, Post code 100875, Haidian District, Beijing, China. Phone: +86-13552946058. Email: [email protected].
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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.

Keywords

older adults anxietyGeriatric Anxiety Inventory-Chinese Version (GAI-CV)item response theoryrelated factors
Type
Research Article
Information
International Psychogeriatrics , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , March 2014 , pp. 517 - 523
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2013 

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