RESEARCH ARTICLE
Psychometric Properties and Factor Structure of the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale among Korean University Students during COVID-19
Hyelin Jeong1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2024Volume: 17
E-location ID: e18743501268244
Publisher ID: BMS-TOPSYJ-2023-70
DOI: 10.2174/0118743501268244231108104216
Article History:
Received Date: 19/07/2023Revision Received Date: 13/09/2023
Acceptance Date: 04/10/2023
Electronic publication date: 01/02/2024
Collection year: 2024
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background
The Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) is a 14-item instrument that is extensively used in clinical and epidemiological studies to determine the presence of anxiety symptoms. Despite the widespread application of the HAM-A in research, it remains unclear whether the instrument’s construct is best represented as uni- or multidimensional. This study aimed to assess the reliability and construct validity of the Korean version of the HAM-A through its factor structure.
Methods
Accordingly, a cross-sectional design was employed to conduct an online survey with 252 university students enrolled in an undergraduate degree program for 4 years in South Korea during the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were employed to identify the two-factorial structure of the instrument, i.e., psychic/psychological and somatic.
Results
The results revealed that the reliability and item characteristics were favorable. Confirmatory factor analyses identified a two-factorial structure of psychic/psychological and somatic with a moderate correlation between the two latent constructs, thus suggesting a single overarching construct of anxiety.
Conclusion
Our findings suggest that the Korean version of HAM-A was found to be a valid and reliable instrument that can be employed to screen Korean university students for anxiety.