The review demonstrated that the WHO-5 has high clinimetric validity , can be used as an outcome measure balancing the wanted and unwanted effects of treatments , is a sensitive and specific screening tool for depression and its applicability across study fields is very high .
Conclusions : The WHO-5 is a short question naire consisting of 5 simple and non-invasive questions , which tap into the subjective well-being of the respondents .
The scale has adequate validity both as a screening tool for depression and as an outcome measure in clinical trials and has been applied successfully across a wide range of study fields
Background : The 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index ( WHO-5 ) is among the most widely used question naires assessing subjective psychological well-being .
Since its first publication in 1998 , the WHO-5 has been translated into more than 30 language s and has been used in research studies all over the world .
We now provide a systematic review of the literature on the WHO-5 .
Depressive, anxiety, and somatoform disorders in primary care: prevalence and recognition.
Recent studies emphasize the negative impact of comorbidity on the course of depression . If undiagnosed , depression and comorbidity contribute to high medical utilization . We aim ed to assess ( 1 ) prevalences of depression alone and with comorbidity ( anxiety/somatoform disorders ) in primary care , ( 2 ) coexistence of anxiety/somatoform disorders in depressive patients , and ( 3 ) diagnostic validity of two screeners regarding depression with versus without comorbidity . We examined 394 primary care out patients using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview ( CIDI ) , the  General Health Question naire (  GHQ-12  ) , and the Well-Being Index ( WHO-5  ) . We conducted configurational frequency analyses to identify nonr and om configurations of the disorders and receiver operating characteristic (ROC)-analyses to assess diagnostic validity of the screeners . Point prevalence of any depressive disorder was 22.8 % ; with at least one comorbid disorder , 15 % ; and with two comorbid conditions , 6.1 % , which significantly exceeded expected percentage ( 0.9 % , P < or = .0001 ) . Depression without comorbidity occurred significantly less often than expected by chance ( P < or = .0007 ) . Comorbidity of depressive and anxiety or somatoform disorders was associated with a high odds ratio ( 6.25 ) . The screeners were comparable regarding their diagnostic validity for depression with [ GHQ-12 : area under the curve (AUC)=0.86 ; WHO-5 : AUC=0.88 ] and without comorbidity ( GHQ-12 : AUC=0.84 ; WHO-5 : AUC=0.86 ) . It can be concluded that comorbidity between depression and anxiety/somatoform disorders in primary care may occur much more frequently than expected . These results confirm assumptions that the current division between depression and anxiety might be debatable . Validity of screeners tested in our study was not affected by comorbid conditions ( e.g. , anxiety or somatoform disorders )
The review demonstrated that the WHO-5 has high clinimetric validity , can be used as an outcome measure balancing the wanted and unwanted effects of treatments , is a sensitive and specific screening tool for depression and its applicability across study fields is very high .
Conclusions : The WHO-5 is a short question naire consisting of 5 simple and non-invasive questions , which tap into the subjective well-being of the respondents .
The scale has adequate validity both as a screening tool for depression and as an outcome measure in clinical trials and has been applied successfully across a wide range of study fields
Background : The 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index ( WHO-5 ) is among the most widely used question naires assessing subjective psychological well-being .
Since its first publication in 1998 , the WHO-5 has been translated into more than 30 language s and has been used in research studies all over the world .
We now provide a systematic review of the literature on the WHO-5 .