Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS): performance in a clinical sample in relation to PHQ-9 and GAD-7

Neha Shah; Mizaya Cader; Bill Andrews; Rose McCabe; Sarah L Stewart-Brown

doi:10.1186/s12955-021-01882-x

Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS): performance in a clinical sample in relation to PHQ-9 and GAD-7

Neha Shah, Mizaya Cader, Bill Andrews, Rose McCabe, Sarah L Stewart-Brown

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

PurposeThis study assesses the construct validity and sensitivity to change of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS) as an outcome measure in the treatment of common mental disorders (CMD) in primary care settings.Methods127 participants attending up to 5 sessions of therapy for CMD in primary care self-rated the SWEMWBS, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scales. SWEMWBS's construct validity and sensitivity to change was evaluated against the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 across multiple time points in two ways: correlation coefficients were calculated between the measures at each time point; and sensitivity to change over time was assessed using repeated measures ANOVA.ResultsScore distributions on SWEMWBS, but not PHQ-9 and GAD-7, met criteria for normality. At baseline, 92.9% (118/127) of participants scored above clinical threshold on either PHQ-9 or GAD-7. Correlations between SWEMWBS and PHQ-9 scores were calculated at each respective time point and ranged from 0.601 to 0.793. Correlations between SWEMWBS and GAD-7 scores were calculated similarly and ranged from 0.630 to 0.743. Significant improvements were seen on all three scales over time. Changes in PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were curvilinear with greatest improvement between sessions 1 and 2. Change in SWEMWBS was linear over the five sessions.ConclusionsThis exploratory study suggests that SWEMWBS is acceptable as a CMD outcome measure in primary care settings, both in terms of construct validity and sensitivity to change. Given patient preference for positively over negatively framed measures and statistical advantages of measures which are normally distributed, SWEMWBS could be used as an alternative to PHQ-9 and GAD-7 in monitoring and evaluating CMD treatment.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	260
Number of pages	1
Journal	Health and quality of life outcomes
Volume	19
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-021-01882-x
Publication status	Published - 24 Nov 2021

Keywords

Depression
Clinical
Anxiety
Counselling
Primary Care
Outcome Measure
Phq-9
Swemwbs
Gad-7 Mental Wellbeing
Humans
Reproducibility of Results
Anxiety Disorders
Psychometrics
Quality of Life
Surveys and Questionnaires
Patient Health Questionnaire
Outcome Assessment, Health Care

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10.1186/s12955-021-01882-x

https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC8611866?pdf=renderLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS): performance in a clinical sample in relation to PHQ-9 and GAD-7",

abstract = "PurposeThis study assesses the construct validity and sensitivity to change of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS) as an outcome measure in the treatment of common mental disorders (CMD) in primary care settings.Methods127 participants attending up to 5 sessions of therapy for CMD in primary care self-rated the SWEMWBS, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scales. SWEMWBS's construct validity and sensitivity to change was evaluated against the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 across multiple time points in two ways: correlation coefficients were calculated between the measures at each time point; and sensitivity to change over time was assessed using repeated measures ANOVA.ResultsScore distributions on SWEMWBS, but not PHQ-9 and GAD-7, met criteria for normality. At baseline, 92.9% (118/127) of participants scored above clinical threshold on either PHQ-9 or GAD-7. Correlations between SWEMWBS and PHQ-9 scores were calculated at each respective time point and ranged from 0.601 to 0.793. Correlations between SWEMWBS and GAD-7 scores were calculated similarly and ranged from 0.630 to 0.743. Significant improvements were seen on all three scales over time. Changes in PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were curvilinear with greatest improvement between sessions 1 and 2. Change in SWEMWBS was linear over the five sessions.ConclusionsThis exploratory study suggests that SWEMWBS is acceptable as a CMD outcome measure in primary care settings, both in terms of construct validity and sensitivity to change. Given patient preference for positively over negatively framed measures and statistical advantages of measures which are normally distributed, SWEMWBS could be used as an alternative to PHQ-9 and GAD-7 in monitoring and evaluating CMD treatment.",

keywords = "Depression, Clinical, Anxiety, Counselling, Primary Care, Outcome Measure, Phq-9, Swemwbs, Gad-7 Mental Wellbeing, Humans, Reproducibility of Results, Anxiety Disorders, Psychometrics, Quality of Life, Surveys and Questionnaires, Patient Health Questionnaire, Outcome Assessment, Health Care",

author = "Neha Shah and Mizaya Cader and Bill Andrews and Rose McCabe and Stewart-Brown, {Sarah L}",

year = "2021",

month = nov,

day = "24",

doi = "10.1186/s12955-021-01882-x",

language = "English",

volume = "19",

pages = "260",

journal = "Health and quality of life outcomes",

issn = "1477-7525",

publisher = "BioMed Central Ltd.",

number = "1",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS): performance in a clinical sample in relation to PHQ-9 and GAD-7

AU - Shah, Neha

AU - Cader, Mizaya

AU - Andrews, Bill

AU - McCabe, Rose

AU - Stewart-Brown, Sarah L

PY - 2021/11/24

Y1 - 2021/11/24

N2 - PurposeThis study assesses the construct validity and sensitivity to change of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS) as an outcome measure in the treatment of common mental disorders (CMD) in primary care settings.Methods127 participants attending up to 5 sessions of therapy for CMD in primary care self-rated the SWEMWBS, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scales. SWEMWBS's construct validity and sensitivity to change was evaluated against the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 across multiple time points in two ways: correlation coefficients were calculated between the measures at each time point; and sensitivity to change over time was assessed using repeated measures ANOVA.ResultsScore distributions on SWEMWBS, but not PHQ-9 and GAD-7, met criteria for normality. At baseline, 92.9% (118/127) of participants scored above clinical threshold on either PHQ-9 or GAD-7. Correlations between SWEMWBS and PHQ-9 scores were calculated at each respective time point and ranged from 0.601 to 0.793. Correlations between SWEMWBS and GAD-7 scores were calculated similarly and ranged from 0.630 to 0.743. Significant improvements were seen on all three scales over time. Changes in PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were curvilinear with greatest improvement between sessions 1 and 2. Change in SWEMWBS was linear over the five sessions.ConclusionsThis exploratory study suggests that SWEMWBS is acceptable as a CMD outcome measure in primary care settings, both in terms of construct validity and sensitivity to change. Given patient preference for positively over negatively framed measures and statistical advantages of measures which are normally distributed, SWEMWBS could be used as an alternative to PHQ-9 and GAD-7 in monitoring and evaluating CMD treatment.

AB - PurposeThis study assesses the construct validity and sensitivity to change of the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS) as an outcome measure in the treatment of common mental disorders (CMD) in primary care settings.Methods127 participants attending up to 5 sessions of therapy for CMD in primary care self-rated the SWEMWBS, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scales. SWEMWBS's construct validity and sensitivity to change was evaluated against the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 across multiple time points in two ways: correlation coefficients were calculated between the measures at each time point; and sensitivity to change over time was assessed using repeated measures ANOVA.ResultsScore distributions on SWEMWBS, but not PHQ-9 and GAD-7, met criteria for normality. At baseline, 92.9% (118/127) of participants scored above clinical threshold on either PHQ-9 or GAD-7. Correlations between SWEMWBS and PHQ-9 scores were calculated at each respective time point and ranged from 0.601 to 0.793. Correlations between SWEMWBS and GAD-7 scores were calculated similarly and ranged from 0.630 to 0.743. Significant improvements were seen on all three scales over time. Changes in PHQ-9 and GAD-7 were curvilinear with greatest improvement between sessions 1 and 2. Change in SWEMWBS was linear over the five sessions.ConclusionsThis exploratory study suggests that SWEMWBS is acceptable as a CMD outcome measure in primary care settings, both in terms of construct validity and sensitivity to change. Given patient preference for positively over negatively framed measures and statistical advantages of measures which are normally distributed, SWEMWBS could be used as an alternative to PHQ-9 and GAD-7 in monitoring and evaluating CMD treatment.

KW - Depression

KW - Clinical

KW - Anxiety

KW - Counselling

KW - Primary Care

KW - Outcome Measure

KW - Phq-9

KW - Swemwbs

KW - Gad-7 Mental Wellbeing

KW - Humans

KW - Reproducibility of Results

KW - Anxiety Disorders

KW - Psychometrics

KW - Quality of Life

KW - Surveys and Questionnaires

KW - Patient Health Questionnaire

KW - Outcome Assessment, Health Care

U2 - 10.1186/s12955-021-01882-x

DO - 10.1186/s12955-021-01882-x

M3 - Article

SN - 1477-7525

VL - 19

SP - 260

JO - Health and quality of life outcomes

JF - Health and quality of life outcomes

IS - 1

ER -