The North Italian Longitudinal Study Assessing the Mental Health Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic Health Care Workers—Part II: Structural Validity of Scales Assessing Mental Health

Emanuele Maria Giusti, Giovanni Veronesi, Camilla Callegari, Gianluca Castelnuovo, Licia Iacoviello and Marco Mario Ferrario
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Emanuele Maria Giusti: Psychology Research Laboratory, Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS, 20149 Milan, Italy
Giovanni Veronesi: EPIMED Research Center, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy
Camilla Callegari: Division of Psychiatry, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy
Gianluca Castelnuovo: Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, 20123 Milan, Italy
Licia Iacoviello: EPIMED Research Center, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy
Marco Mario Ferrario: EPIMED Research Center, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-16

Abstract: It is unclear if the factor structure of the questionnaires that were employed by studies addressing the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of Healthcare Workers (HCW) did not change due to the pandemic. The aim of this study is to assess the factor structure and longitudinal measurement invariance of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the factor structure of the General Health Questionnare-12 (GHQ-12), PTSD Checklist for DSM-5-Short Form (PCL-5-SF), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 (CD-RISC-10) and Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory-Short Form (PTGI-SF). Out of n = 805 HCWs from a University hospital who responded to a pre-COVID-19 survey, n = 431 were re-assessed after the COVID-19 outbreak. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on the MBI showed adequate fit and good internal consistency only after removal of items 2, 6, 12 and 16. The assumptions of configural and metric longitudinal invariance were met, whereas scalar longitudinal invariance did not hold. CFAs and exploratory bifactor analyses performed using data from the second wave confirmed that the GHQ-12, the PCL-5-SF, the PTGI-SF and the CD-RISC-10 were unidimensional. In conclusion, we found support for a refined version of the MBI. The comparison of mean MBI values in HCWs before and after the pandemic should be interpreted with caution.

Keywords: factor structure; health care workers; Maslach Burnout Inventory; General Health Questionnaire; PTSD Checklist for DSM-5; Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale; Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory; mental health; COVID-19; longitudinal study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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