Assessing anxiety among adolescents in Hong Kong: psychometric properties and validity of the Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) in an epidemiological community sample

Abstract

All psychometric findings presented in this study support the use of the GAD-7 as a legitimate measure of anxiety severity. A cut-off score of 7 should indicate a potential diagnosable condition in Asian adolescents, which requires our attention but should not be used as a formal diagnostic screening tool. The findings revealed the local dependence of the items of the GAD-7 and that the scale can separate respondents into at least two groups and items into numerous groups according to the separation index.