Health and Quality of Life Outcomes BioMed Central Research Open Access Measuring mental health of the Dutch population: a comparison of the GHQ-12 and the MHI-5 Nancy Hoeymans*1, Anna A Garssen1, Gert P Westert1 and Peter FM Verhaak2 Address: 1National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, . Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, The Netherlands and 2Netherlands Institute of Health Services Research (NIVEL), . Box 1568, 3500 BN Utrecht, The Netherlands Email: Nancy Hoeymans* - ; Anna A Garssen - annagarssen_to@; Gert P Westert - ; Peter FM Verhaak - * Corresponding author Published: 07 May 2004 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2004, 2:23 This. | BioMed Central Health and Quality of Life Outcomes Open Access Research Measuring mental health of the Dutch population a comparison of the GHQ-12 and the MHI-5 Nancy Hoeymans 1 Anna A Garssen1 Gert P Westert1 and Peter FM Verhaak2 Address 1National Institute of Public Health and the Environment . Box 1 3720 BA Bilthoven The Netherlands and 2Netherlands Institute of Health Services Research NIVEL . Box 1568 3500 BN Utrecht The Netherlands Email Nancy Hoeymans - Anna A Garssen - annagarssen_to@ Gert P Westert - Peter FM Verhaak - Corresponding author Published 07 May 2004 Received 12 March 2004 Accepted 07 May 2004 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2004 2 23 This article is available from http content 2 l 23 2004 Hoeymans 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 Backgroud The objective is to compare the performance of the MHI-5 and GHQ-12 both measures of general mental health. Therefore we studied the relationship of the GHQ-12 and MHI-5 with sociodemographic characteristics self-reported visits to general practice and mental health care and with diagnoses made by the general practitioner. Methods Data were used from the Second Dutch National Survey of General Practice which was carried out in l04 practices. This study combines data from a representative sample of the Dutch population with data from general practice. Results The agreement between the GHQ-12 and MHI-5 is only moderate. Both instruments are however similarly associated with demographic characteristics except age self-reported health care use and psychological and social diagnoses in general practice. Conclusions The performance of the MHI-5 and GHQ-12 in terms of predicting mental health problems and related
