Health and Quality of Life Outcomes BioMed Central Research Open Access The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12): translation and validation study of the Iranian version Ali Montazeri*, Amir Mahmood Harirchi, Mohammad Shariati, Gholamreza Garmaroudi, Mehdi Ebadi and Abolfazl Fateh Address: Iranian Institute for Health Sciences Research, Tehran, Iran Email: Ali Montazeri* - ali@; Amir Mahmood Harirchi - hariram@; Mohammad Shariati - IHSR@; Gholamreza Garmaroudi - IHSR@; Mehdi Ebadi - IHSR@; Abolfazl Fateh - IHSR@ * Corresponding author Published: 13 November 2003 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003, 1:66 This article is available from: Received: 13 October 2003 Accepted: 13 November 2003 © 2003 Montazeri et al; licensee. | BioMed Central Health and Quality of Life Outcomes Research Open Access The 12-item General Health Questionnaire GHQ-12 translation and validation study of the Iranian version Ali Montazeri Amir Mahmood Harirchi Mohammad Shariati Gholamreza Garmaroudi Mehdi Ebadi and Abolfazl Fateh Address Iranian Institute for Health Sciences Research Tehran Iran Email Ali Montazeri - ali@ Amir Mahmood Harirchi - hariram@ Mohammad Shariati - IHSR@ Gholamreza Garmaroudi - IHSR@ Mehdi Ebadi - IHSR@ Abolfazl Fateh - IHSR@ Corresponding author Published 13 November 2003 Received 13 October 2003 Accepted 13 November 2003 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003 1 66 r This article is available from http content l l 66 2003 Montazeri et al licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose provided this notice is preserved along with the article s original URL. Abstract Background The objective of this study was to translate and to test the reliability and validity of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire GHQ-12 in Iran. Methods Using a standard forward-backward translation procedure the English language version of the questionnaire was translated into Persian Iranian language . Then a sample of young people aged 18 to 25 years old completed the questionnaire. In addition a short questionnaire containing demographic questions and a single measure of global quality of life was administered. To test reliability the internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach s alpha coefficient. Validity was performed using convergent validity. Finally the factor structure of the questionnaire was extracted by performing principal component analysis using oblique factor solution. Results In all 748 young people entered into the study. The mean age of respondents was SD years. Employing the .
