Assessing late-life anxiety in Japanese older adults: psychometric evaluation of the Japanese version of the Geriatric Anxiety Scale

Background: This study developed a Japanese version of the Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS-J) and its short form (GAS-10-J) to evaluate anxiety in Japanese older adults and assess its psychometric properties using a cross-sectional design. Methods: A total of 331 community-dwelling older adult participants (208 men, 116 women, seven unknowns; mean age = 73.47 ± 5.17 years, range = 60–88 years) recruited from two Silver Human Resources Centres in the Kanto region, Japan, answered a set of self-report questionnaires. Of these respondents, 120 participated in a follow-up survey to evaluate test–retest reliability. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that, as with the original GAS, the GAS-J had a three-factor structure and the GAS-10-J had a unifactor structure with high standardised factor loadings. Test–retest correlations and internal consistency analyses indicated that these scales were reliable. Correlations between the GAS-J/GAS-10-J with the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory, Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7, Geriatric Depression Scale-15, World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index, and Kihon Checklist were mostly consistent with our hypotheses, thereby supporting the construct validity of the GAS-J/GAS-10-J. Conclusions: The findings indicate that the GAS-J and GAS-10-J have robust psychometric properties for assessing late-life anxiety in Japanese older adults. Further GAS-J studies are required for clinical groups.