BioPsychoSocial Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet

Test: General Well-Being (GWB) Schedule

Year: 1977

Domain: Psychological

Assessment Tool Category: Psychological well-being

Variations/Translations: Psychological Mental Health index is a 10 item version; Health Insurance Study of General Well-being (HIS-GWB); Psychological General Well-being Index; British version known as the Adapted General Well-being Index (AGWBI)

Setting: Community Survey

Method of Delivery: Self-administered questionnaire

Description: The General well-being schedule is a self-administered questionnaire that focuses on one’s subjective feelings of psychological well-being and distress. The scale assesses how the individual feels about his/ her “inner personal state”. It consists of 18 items covering six dimensions of anxiety, depression, general health, positive well-being, self-control and vitality. The scale includes both positive and negative questions and each item has the time frame “during the last month”. The first 14 questions use six-point response scales representing intensity or frequency. The remaining four questions use 0-to-10 rating scales defined by adjectives at each end.

Scoring/Interpretation: There is a total score running from 0 to 110 with lower scores indicating more severe distress. The three levels of distress are sectioned accordingly: 0 to 60 reflect “severe distress”; 61 to 72 “moderate distress”; and 73 to 110 “positive well being”. Scores can be narrowed further into severe, serious, distress, stress problem, marginal, low positive and positive well-being.

Time to Administer: Approximately 10 minutes

Availability: Public Domain. Can be accessed online.

Software: N/A

Website: http://www.murraystate.edu/registrar/pdf/Scale.pdf

Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative

Validity (Quantitative): The average correlation of the GWB Schedule and six independent depression scales was 0.69. Correlations between individual subscales and criterion ratings were high, ranging between 0.65 and 0.90 (McDowell, 2006).

Reliability (Quantitative): The test-retest reliability coefficients (after three months) of 0.68 and 0.85 for two different groups. Internal consistency coefficients for the three subscales range from 0.72 to 0.88. Three studies reported internal consistency coefficients over 0.9 (McDowell, 2006).

References:

Dupuy, H.J. (1977). The General Well-being Schedule. In I. McDowell & C. Newell (Eds.), Measuring health: a guide to rating scales and questionnaire (2^nd ed) (pp. 206-213). USA: Oxford University Press.

Dupuy.H.J. (1984). The Psychological general Well-Being (PGWB) Index. In N. Wenger (Eds.), Assessment of quality of life in clinical trials of cardiovascular therapies (pp.170-183). New York: Le Jacq.

McDowell, I. (2006). Measuring health: a guide to rating scales and questionnaires (3^rd ed.). USA: Oxford University Press.

Comments: The GWB Schedule is good for group studies of subjective well-being but less is known regarding its adequacy as a case-detection instrument.