Psychometric Evidence of The 7-Item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire in Brazil

Abstract

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is one of the most prevalent and 1 impairing psychological disorders. GAD is defined as a persistent and excessive worry 2 associated with physical and psychological symptoms. Despite the potentially severe 3 nature of GAD, it has been estimated that nearly half of patients live with the symptoms 4 for about two years before being appropriately diagnosed and treated. To allow early 5 identification of this disorder, valid and reliable measures for the screening of GAD are 6 essential. Therefore, the present study aimed to gather psychometric evidence of the 7-7 Item Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire (GAD-7) in Brazil (N = 746). The 8 findings suggested a stable one-factor structure (CFI = .99; TLI = .99; RMSEA = .05) 9 that is likely to be replicated (H-Latent = .92; H-Observed = .86) and have excellent 10 reliability (ω = .91; CR = .91). Furthermore, the GAD-7 correlated positively with the 11 DASS-21 stress (r = .73), depression (r = .53), and anxiety (r = .60) factors, along with 12 the Groningen Sleep Quality Scale (r = .45) and the personality trait of neuroticism (r = 13 .49), supporting its convergent validity. Finally, the GAD-7 is able to differentiate 14 between participants with mild, moderate and severe level of anxiety. Taken together, 15 the present findings indicate that the GAD-7 is a suitable psychometric measure to 16 assess generalized anxiety disorder in Brazil.