An investigation of the psychometric properties of the Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS) in an Italian sample of community-dwelling older adults

Background: The Italian older adult population is increasing and psychiatric problems, such as anxiety among older adults, represent major challenges for public welfare. A strong need exists for instruments specifically developed to assess anxiety among Italian older adults. The Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS) is a 30-item self-report questionnaire that evaluates anxiety among older adults and has demonstrated strong psychometric properties in several languages. Objective: The present study aimed to validate an Italian version of the GAS (GAS-I) and to preliminarily investigate its psychometric properties. Method: The translation was performed using a five-stage procedure, following a forward–back process and paying attention to cultural issues. The GAS-I was administered to 231 community-dwelling older adults with other commonly-used questionnaires of anxiety, depression, and quality of life. Results: Results confirmed good psychometric qualities of the questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analyses evidenced a unidimensional structure of the GAS-I, in accordance with other validated versions. Convergent and discriminant validity were highly satisfactory. The three-factor model also provided an acceptable fit to the data. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses revealed good discriminatory power of the GAS-I. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that the GAS-I is a reliable and valid self-report questionnaire to measure anxiety among Italian older adults.