Reliability and Validity of the International Depression Questionnaire and International Anxiety Questionnaire in English- and Spanish-Speaking Samples in Chile,Mexico,and the United States
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2026
Reliability and Validity of the International Depression Questionnaire and International Anxiety Questionnaire in English- and Spanish-Speaking Samples in Chile,Mexico,and the United States
Given the high prevalence of depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) globally and their comorbidity, it is imperative to have reliable and valid measures of these constructs. The International Depression Questionnaire (IDQ) and International Anxiety Questionnaire (IAQ) are recently developed measures to assess for depressive disorder and GAD, respectively, based on ICD-11 criteria. The current study examined the reliability and validity of the IDQ and IAQ in English- and Spanish-language translations in four samples from Chile, Mexico, and the United States. The Spanish IDQ and IAQ demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency (IDQ omega = .87–.91 and IAQ omega = .86–.93) and strong convergent validity. Overall prevalence for ICD-11 depressive disorder was 15.3%, and the GAD prevalence was 22.4% across samples. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) found good to excellent fit across the four samples, supporting the unidimensionality of the IDQ and IAQ. Results indicate the Spanish translations of the IDQ and IAQ are psychometrically sound and appear appropriate for use in North and South American samples of Spanish speakers. Results also supported the psychometric properties of the English IDQ and IAQ in the United States.
AlpayE. H.RedicanE.HylandP.ShevlinM. (2023). Translation and validation of the Turkish forms of the International Depression Questionnaire (IDQ) and the International Anxiety Questionnaire (IAQ). Acta Psychologica, 238, 103988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103988
2.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed. text rev.). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890420249.dsm-iv-tr
AsnaaniA.RicheyJ. A.DimaiteR.HintonD. E.HofmannS. G. (2010). A cross-ethnic comparison of lifetime prevalence rates of anxiety disorders. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 198(8), 551–555. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0b013e3181ea169f
6.
FirstM. B.GaebelW.MajM.SteinD. J.KoganC. S.SaundersJ. B.PoznyakV. B.GurejeO.Lewis-FernándezR.MaerckerA.BrewinC. R.CloitreM.ClaudinoA.PikeK. M.BairdG.SkuseD.KruegerR. B.BrikenP.BurkeJ. D.. . . ReedG. M. (2021). An organization- and category-level comparison of diagnostic requirements for mental disorders in ICD-11 and DSM-5. World Psychiatry, 20, 34–51. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20825
7.
FischerR.KarlJ. A.Luczak-RoeschM.HartleL. (2025). Why we need to rethink measurement invariance: The role of measurement invariance in cross-cultural research. Cross-cultural Research, 59(2), 147–179. https://doi.org/10.1177/10693971241312459
8.
GaterR.TansellaM.KortenA.TiemensB. G.MavreasV. G.OlatawuraM. O. (1998). Sex differences in the prevalence and detection of depressive and anxiety disorders in general health care settings. Archives of General Psychiatry, 55,405–413. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.55.5.405
9.
GonzalezH. M.TarrafW.WhitfieldK. E.VegaW. A. (2010). The epidemiology of major depression and ethnicity in the United States. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 44(15), 1043–1051. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2010.03.017
10.
HallerH.CramerH.LaucheR.GassF.DobosG. J. (2014). The prevalence and burden of subthreshold generalized anxiety disorder: A systematic review. BMC Psychiatry, 14, Article 128. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-14-128
11.
HuL.BentlerP. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
12.
HylandP.RedicanE.KaratziasT.ShevlinM. (2023). Assessing the validity and reliability of the International Anxiety Questionnaire and the International Depression Questionnaire in two bereaved national samples. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 31(1), Article e2917. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2917
13.
HylandP.RedicanE.ShevlinM.AlpayE. H. (2025). The structure of psychological distress in the aftermath of the 2023 Turkey/Syria earthquakes. Traumatology, 31(1), 127–134. https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000496
14.
KesslerR. C.BerglundP.BorgesG.NockM.WangP. S. (2005). Trends in suicide ideation, plans, gestures, and attempts in the United States, 1990-1992 to 2001-2003. Journal of the American Medical Association, 293(20), 2487–2495. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.293.20.2487
15.
KesslerR. C.SampsonN. A.BerglundP.GruberM. J.Al-HamzawiA.AndradeL.BuntingB.DemyttenaereK.FlorescuS.de GirolamoG.GurejeO.HeY.HuC.HuangY.KaramE.Kovess-MasfetyV.LeeS.LevinsonD.Medina MoraM. E.. . . WilcoxM. A. (2015). Anxious and non-anxious major depressive disorder in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys. Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, 24(3), 210–226. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2045796015000189
16.
KimH-Y. (2013). Statistical notes for clinical researchers: Assessing normal distribution (2) using skewness and kurtosis. Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics, 38(1), 52–54. https://doi.org/10.5395/rde.2013.38.1.52
17.
KroenkeK.SpitzerR. L.WilliamsJ. B. (2001). The PHQ-9: Validity of a brief depression severity measure. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 16(9), 606–613. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606.x
18.
LecrubierY. (2001). The burden of depression and anxiety in general medicine. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 62, 4–9.
19.
LimG. Y.TamW. W.LuY.HoC. S.ZhangM. W.HoR. C. (2018). Prevalence of depression in the community from 30 countries between 1994 and 2014. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 2861. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21243-x
20.
MartsenkovskyiD.ShevlinM.Ben-EzraM.BondjersK.FoxR.KaratziasT.MartsenkovskaI.MartsenkovskyI.PfeifferE.SachserC.VallieresF.HylandP. (2024). Mental health in Ukraine in 2023. European Psychiatry, 67(1), Article e27. https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2024.12
21.
McElroyE.WoodT.BondR.MulvennaM.ShevlinM.PloubidisG. B.HoffmannM. S.MoltrechtB. (2024). Using natural language processing to facilitate the harmonisation of mental health questionnaires: A validation study using real-world data. BMC Psychiatry, 24(1), 530. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-024-05954-2
22.
MeadeA. W.BauerD. J. (2007). Power and precision in confirmatory factor analytic tests of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 14(4), 611–635.
Moreno-AgostinoD.WuY. T.DaskalopoulouC.HasanM. T.HuismanM.PrinaM. (2021). Global trends in the prevalence and incidence of depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 281, 235–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2020.12.035
25.
MoriartyA. S.GilbodyS.McMillanD.ManeaL. (2015). Screening and case findings for major depressive disorder using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9): A meta-analysis. General Hospital Psychiatry, 37(6), 567–576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2015.06.012
26.
MuthénL. K.MuthénB. O. (2017). Mplus user’s guide (8th ed.).
27.
RuscioA. M.HallionL. S.LimC. C. W.Aguilar-GaxiolaS.Al-HamzawiA.AlonsoJ.AndradeL. H.BorgesG.BrometE. J.BuntingB.CaldasdeAlmeidaJ. M.DemyttenaereK.FlorescuS.de GirolamoG.GurejeO.HaroJ. M.HeY.HinkovH.HuC.. . . ScottK. M. (2017). Cross-sectional comparison of the epidemiology of DSM-5 generalized anxiety disorder across the globe. JAMA Psychiatry, 74(5), 465–475. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2017.0056
28.
ShevlinM.HylandP.ButterS.McBrideO.HartmanT. K.KaratziasT.BentallR. P. (2023). The development and initial validation of self-report measures of ICD-11 depressive episode and generalized anxiety disorder: The International Depression Questionnaire (IDQ) and the International Anxiety Questionnaire (IAQ). Journal of Clinical Psychology, 79(3), 854–870. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23446
29.
SpitzerR. L.KroenkeK.WilliamsJ. B.LöweB. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: The GAD-7. JAMA Internal Medicine, 166(10), 1092–1097. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092
VicenteB.KohnR.RiosecoP.SaldiviaS.LevavI.TorresS. (2006). Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSM-III-R disorders in the Chile psychiatric prevalence study. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 163(8), 1362–1370. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.2006.163.8.1362
33.
WittchenH. U. (2002). Generalized anxiety disorder: Prevalence, burden, and cost to society. Depression and Anxiety, 16(4), 162–171. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.10065
34.
World Health Organization. (2019). International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (11th ed.). https://doi.org/https://icd.who.int/
35.
YousefiS.MayeliP. (2023). Psychometric properties of the Persian version of the International Depression Questionnaire (IDQ) and the International Anxiety Questionnaire (IAQ) in students of Tehran Medical Sciences Universities. Journal of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, 33(2), 232–246.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
