Validation of the Persian version of the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory

This study aimed to translate and validitethe 20-item Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI) in Iran.
After receiving permission from the designer, the Persian version of the GAI wa provided. Then face and content validity¡ construct validity were performed. Known group cpmaprsion and by using the SF-36, criterion validity also was performed. Internal consistency was used to examine reliability.
In all 100 elderly participated in the study. Significant differences between none-abused and abused groups observed ((P = 0.0001). The criterion validity showed high and significant correlation between most GAI and SF-36 subscales. Cronbach's alpha for the total scale was 0.957.
The findings revealed that the Persian version of GAI is a valid instrument to measure anxiety in eldrly populations in Iran. We recommend that the future studies examine factors structure of the questionnaire in a larger sample size.