The factor structure of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30). A reliability study on 6317 community residents

An individual's responses to Goldberg's 30-item General Health Questionnaire are usually represented as a single score which provides a measure of the number of psychiatric symptoms reported. No account is taken of the nature of the symptoms. Factor analyses of the GHQ-30 were undertaken in ten randomly selected samples of 600 adults each, and also on 12 age-sex groupings covering the age range 18-98. The results indicate an impressive degree of consistency of the factor structure, and the identification of five distinct factors corresponding to anxiety, feelings of incompetence, depression, difficulty in coping, and social dysfunction.