Reliability and Validity of Gujarati Version of WHO-5 Well-being Index in Community-dwelling Older Individuals: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Major mental health issues like depression are not yet acknowledged as considerable public health challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO-5) well-being index is a simple concise questionnaire consisting of five basic questions that evaluate respondents' subjective well-being. The scale's internal and external validity are good for assessing depression in older individuals. This scale serves as an essential tool to evaluate various mental health-related issues as part of regular health check-ups. Thus, there was a need to translate and validate the WHO-5 well-being index in the Gujarati language. Aim: To find out the validity and reliability of the Gujarati version of the WHO-5 well-being index in the community-dwelling older individuals. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among various community-dwelling older individuals in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, from March 2022 to August 2022. Permission was taken from the developer of the original scale and translation and validation of the scale were done according to suggestions given by the developer. A total of 60 participants and eight professionals with a mean experience of 13.5 years in the field of psychology, physiotherapy and healthcare area were involved in the examination of each item of the Gujarati version of WHO-5. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0 was used for the statistical analysis. Results: The mean age of the participants was 67.02 +/- 4.77 years. The content validity ratio of all items of the Gujarati WHO-5 well-being scale was 1. Internal consistency of the Gujarati WHO-5 well-being scale was calculated through Cronbach's alpha (alpha=0.89) suggesting high internal consistency. Test-retest reliability of the Gujarati WHO-5 well-being scale was calculated through the Interclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC=0.89) suggesting excellent test-retest reliability. Conclusion: Gujarati WHO-5 well-being scale is a simple, accurate and reliable measure for evaluating psychological well-being and mental health status.