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; Marco Mario Ferrario

doi:10.3390/ijerph19159541

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

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Aug 3;19(15):9541. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19159541.

Authors

Emanuele Maria Giusti^{1

2}, Giovanni Veronesi³, Camilla Callegari⁴, Gianluca Castelnuovo^{2

5}, Licia Iacoviello^{3

6}, Marco Mario Ferrario³

Affiliations

¹ Psychology Research Laboratory, Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS, 20149 Milan, Italy.
² Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, 20123 Milan, Italy.
³ EPIMED Research Center, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy.
⁴ Division of Psychiatry, Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, 21100 Varese, Italy.
⁵ Psychology Research Laboratory, Istituto Auxologico Italiano IRCCS, 28824 Verbania, Italy.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, IRCCS Neuromed, 86077 Pozzilli, Italy.

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: COVID-19; Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale; General Health Questionnaire; Maslach Burnout Inventory; PTSD Checklist for DSM-5; Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory; factor structure; health care workers; longitudinal study; mental health.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Burnout, Professional*
COVID-19* / epidemiology
Health Personnel
Humans
Longitudinal Studies
Mental Health
Pandemics
Psychometrics
Reproducibility of Results
SARS-CoV-2
Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This study was sponsored by a grant provided by Regione Lombardia (DG-Welfare n. 7082/2020); a grant by Fondazione Veronesi (COVID-19 Insieme per la Ricerca 2020); and by a grant provided by Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione Contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro (Grant ID: BRIC-2019 ID 29A).