Reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the World Health Organization‐Five Well‐Being Index in elderly

AIMS: The World Health Organization (WHO)-Five Well-being Index (WHO-5) is a short 5-item index designed to assess the level of emotional well-being. The positive questions of the WHO-5, shifted towards measuring cheerfulness and the level of energy, work in the screening of depression. This paper describes the psychometric properties of the Spanish WHO-5 in older persons. METHODS: A total of 199 participants from community centers and primary care centers participated in the study completing a battery of measures: WHO-5, Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF), depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale [GDS-15]), as well as health and sociodemographic information. Analysis was performed using standard psychometric methods. RESULTS: Internal consistency reliability was good (Cronbach's α = 0.86). Exploratory factor analysis showed a one-factor solution which accounted for 66% of the total variance of WHO-5. Moderate-high correlations were found between WHO-5 and the WHOQOL-BREF and GDS-15 were confirmed, indicating good convergent validity. Discriminative validity was confirmed by the ability of the WHO-5 to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy and depressed and non-depressed participants (as measured by the GDS-15). CONCLUSIONS: The WHO-5 showed acceptable psychometric properties in elderly persons. It might be a useful tool to assess emotional well-being and to detect depressive symptoms among older persons in primary care and community centers.