Psychometric Evaluation of Wellness-Based Screeners: National Sample of U.S. Physicians

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Total wellness (mental and physical health) is a core element and a foundational pillar in the mental health counseling field. The counseling literature is lacking research on supporting physicians in the United States, who are a unique population facing complex mental and physical health issues. Health-based screening has notable utility for monitoring and promoting physician wellness. However, the literature is missing a package of health-based screeners with valid scores among a normative sample of U.S. physicians. We tested the psychometric properties of the following wellness-based screeners with a national sample of U.S. physicians: Mental Health Inventory–5, Lifestyle Practices and Health Consciousness Inventory–2, and Inner Wealth Inventory. Results revealed support for convergent validity and factorial invariance of physicians’ scores on all three screeners by gender identity and help-seeking history. We offer recommendations for how these wellness-based screeners can edify the practice of mental health counselors when working with physician clients.