Measuring the Mental Health Status of a Population: a Comparison of the GHQ–12 and the SF–36 (MHI–5)

The MHI-5 has comparable psychometric performance to the GHQ-12, and can be used to measure and compare mental health in defined populations. Operational advantages of the MHI-5 over the GHQ-12 are that it is in the public domain, is part of a general health measure (SF-36) and is shorter.