Validation of the World Health Organisation 5-Item Well- Being Index (WHO-5) among the Adult Population Living in a Chronically Arsenic Affected Area of Rural West Bengal in India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37506/ijphrd.v11i3.1384Keywords:
WHO-5 well-being index; Arsenic; Reliability; Validity; Factor analysisAbstract
Objective: The aim of this study was to validate the World Health Organisation 5-item well-being index
(WHO-5) in a sample of the adult population living in a chronically Arsenic affected area in rural West
Bengal.
Materials and Method: The reliability was measured through Cronbach’s alpha. For evaluating the validity
of the construct, Barlett sphericity test and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin sample adequacy test was conducted.
Exploratory factor analysis was done to study the dimension of factors. Correlations were explored between
the WHO-5 scores and study variables.
Results: The mean score of the total WHO-5 score was 13.09(SD=5.276). A Cronbach’s alpha of 0.794
indicated acceptable internal consistency. The Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was significant (Chi =167.86,
df=10, p<0.001). The KMO measure for sampling adequacy was 0.826. So the sample was factorable.
Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the one-factor structure that accounted for 56.49% variance with
an eigenvalue of 2.825. A significant correlation was observed for WHO-5 with health expenditure and
postponement of check-up.
Conclusion: The WHO-5 well-being index showed acceptable internal validity and construct validity with
a one-dimensional structure.