Goldberg Anxiety and Depression Scale: Pilot study of the Basque adaptation

Abstract

Developing Basque-adapted and validated assessment tools is still an unsolved need. Nowadays, there is no Basque questionnaire to assess the emotional dimension of elderly people. In order to respond to this need, in this work, a pilot research was realised to adapt the Spanish version of Goldberg Anxiety and Depression Scale (GADS) to Basque. Participants were 68 Basque-speaking institutionalised elders from different sociolinguistic areas in Navarre and Gipuzkoa that answered the Basque version of GADS (GADE). Preliminary results have shown that the Basque version has an adequate internal consistency. Despite some doubts in specific words, the results indicate a generally good items’ understanding from the subjects. Thus, the results of this pilot research suggest that GADE, regarding the experimental phase of adaptation, seems to be a reliable tool in order to assess anxiety and depression in Basque institutionalised elderly people.