Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Jul;17(3):309-316.
doi: 10.1037/a0023883.

A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 among English- and Spanish-speaking Latinas

Erin L Merz  1 , Vanessa L Malcarne  2 , Scott C Roesch  3 , Natasha Riley  4 , Georgia Robins Sadler  5
Affiliations

A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 among English- and Spanish-speaking Latinas

Erin L Merz et al. Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol. 2011 Jul.

Abstract

Depression is a significant problem for ethnic minorities that remains understudied partly due to a lack of strong measures with established psychometric properties. One screening tool, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), which was developed for use in primary care has also gained popularity in research settings. The reliability and validity of the PHQ-9 has been well established among predominantly Caucasian samples, in addition to many minority groups. However, there is little evidence regarding its utility among Hispanic Americans, a large and growing cultural group in the United States. In this study, we investigated the reliability and structural validity of the PHQ-9 in Hispanic American women. A community sample of 479 Latina women from southern California completed the PHQ-9 in their preferred language of English or Spanish. Cronbach's alphas suggested that there was good internal consistency for both the English- and Spanish-language versions. Structural validity was investigated using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. Results support a similar one-factor structure with equivalent response patterns and variances among English- and Spanish-speaking Latinas. These results suggest that the PHQ-9 can be used with confidence in both English and Spanish versions to screen Latinas for depression.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Alegria M, Shrout PE, Woo M, Guarnaccia P, Sribney W, Vila D, Polo A, Cao Z, Mulvaney-Day N, Torres M, Canino G. Understanding differences in past year psychiatric disorders for Latinos living in the U.S. Social Science and Medicine. 2007;65:214–230. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allen J, Walsh JA. A construct-based approach to equivalence: Methodologies for cross-cultural/multicultural personality assessment research. In: Dana RH, editor. Handbook of cross-cultural and multicultural personality assessment. Personality and clinical psychology series. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 2000. pp. 63–85.
    1. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV-TR, 4th ed. Text Revision. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2000.
    1. Azah MN, Shah ME, Juwita S, Bahri IS, Rushidi WM, Jamil YM. Validation of the Malay Version Brief Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) among adult attending family medicine clinics [Abstract] International Medical Journal. 2005;12:259–263.
    1. Becker S, Al Zaid K, Al Faris E. Screening for somatization and depression in Saudi Arabia: A validation study of the PHQ in Primary Care. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine. 2002;32:271–283. - PubMed

Publication types