Abstract

Abstract


Objective: To translate and validate Generalized Anxiety Disorder -7scale in Urdu, for use in Pakistan in the primary healthcare setups.
Methods: The validation study was conducted at the Combined Military Hospital, Gilgit, Pakistan, from February to May 2016.We followed a systematic six-step process to validate the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale in the target population. The instrument was translated independently and then fused together. Back-translation was followed by recommendations by an expert committee, and face validity improvement by a language expert. A pilot study was done to get user\\\'s feedback on the construct. Volunteers were administered the questionnaire for validation procedure, along with a well-being scale, at three different cities representing volunteers from four different administrative regions of Pakistan.
Results: There were 285 volunteers in the study. Principal component exploratory factor analysis supported unidimensional structure of the scale with an eigenvalue of 5.18 and it explained 64.8% of the total variance. Total score on the scale was negatively correlated with positive effect (r = -0.44, p