The Four-item Patient Health Questionnaire for Anxiety and Depression: A Validation Study in Infertile Patients

The most common mental disorders in infertile patients are depression and anxiety. The four-item Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) is a widely used tool that consists of the PHQ-2 depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (GAD-2) scales. Given that PHQ-4 has not been validated in infertile patients, this study aimed to examine its reliability and validity in this population.

Participants in this cross-sectional study consisted of 539 infertile patients from a referral fertility centre in Tehran, Iran. The PHQ-4, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), World Health Organisation- Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5), Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and demographic/infertility questionnaires were administered to all participants. Factor structure and internal consistency of PHQ-4 were evaluated via confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and Cronbach's alpha, respectively. The convergent validity of this scale was examined by its relationship with HADS, WHO-5 and PSWQ.

CFA results provided support for a two-factor model of PHQ-4. Internal consistency of the PHQ-4 and its subscales both were elevated with Cronbach's alpha coefficients of 0.767 (PHQ-4), 0.780 (PHQ-2) and 0.814 (GAD-2). Inter-item correlations were between 0.386 and 0.639, and corrected item-total correlations were between 0.576 and 0.687. PHQ-4, PHQ-2 and GAD-2 showed positive correlations with measures of HADS-anxiety, HADS-depression, and PSWQ and negative correlations with WHO-5, which confirmed convergent validity. Among demographic/fertility variables, we observed that gender, infertility duration, and failure in previous treatment were correlated with PHQ-4 and its subscales scores.

The PHQ-4 is a reliable and valid ultra-brief screening instrument for measuring both anxiety and depressive symptoms in infertile patients.