Psychometric Properties of Persian Version of the General Health Questionnaire in Patients with Mitral Valve Prolapse: A Methodological Study

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is one of the most common valvular heart disease in humans. The general health of patients with chronic diseases is important for health care providers. Since a valid tool is needed to general health assessment, this study was conducted to validation of general health questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) in patients with mitral valve prolapse.

Construct validity was performed in 190 patients with mitral valve prolapse.  Factors were extracted with exploratory factor analysis with maximum likelihood and Promax rotation method. 190 other patients with mitral valve prolapse were studied for confirmatory factor analysis. In this part, with maximum likelihood estimation method was evaluated model fitness.

Exploratory factor analysis after removal of 7 items showed a four-factor construct for GHQ-28. Four factor are respectively, depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, social functioning and anxiety symptoms.  These four factors explain 47.9% of the total variance of the general health in patients with mitral valve prolapse. Due to all regression coefficients in confirmatory factor analysis models and fitness indices of confirmatory factor analysis were high (>0.5), the assumed model had a good fit. Cronbach's alpha, omega McDonald, CR and the maximum reliability of the four factors extracted from the 21-item general health questionnaire were greater than 0.7.

Based on the study results, the validity and confidence of the 21-item Persian version of the General Health Questionnaire has been confirmed. This tool can be used in screening and clinical studies related to the general health dimensions of patients with mitral valve prolapse.