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The purpose of this paper is to measure reliability, validity and accuracy of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) as a measure of emotional wellbeing in pregnant women; utility and threshold in particular.

The authors measured self-reported emotional wellbeing responses of 164 low-risk pregnant Dutch women with the GHQ-12 and a dichotomous case-finding item (Gold standard). The authors established internal consistency of the 12 GHQ-items (Cronbach’s coefficient α); construct validity: factor analysis using Oblimin rotation; convergent validity (Pearson’s correlation) and discriminatory ability (area under the receiver operating characteristics curve and index of union); and external validity of the dichotomous criterion standard against the GHQ-12 responses (sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios and predictive values), applying a cut-off value of ⩾ 12 and ⩾ 17, respectively.

A coefficient of 0.85 showed construct reliability. The GHQ-12 items in the pattern matrix showed a three-dimensional factorial model: factor 1, anxiety and depression; factor 2, coping; and factor 3, significance/effect on life, with a total variance of 59 per cent. The GHQ-12 showed good accuracy (0.84; p=<0.001) and external validity (r=0.57; p=<0.001) when the cut-off value was set at the ⩾ 17 value. Using a cut-off value of ⩾ 17 demonstrated higher sensitivity (72.32 vs 41.07 per cent) but lower specificity (32.69 vs 55.77 per cent) compared to the commonly used cut-off value of ⩾ 12.

Findings generally support the reliability, validity and accuracy of the Dutch version of the GHQ-12. Further evaluation of the measure, at more than one timepoint during pregnancy, is recommended.

The GHQ-12 holds the potential to measure antenatal emotional wellbeing and women’s emotional responses and coping mechanisms with reduced antenatal emotional wellbeing.

Adapting the GHQ-12 cut-off value enables effective identification of reduced emotional wellbeing to provide adequate care and allows potential reduction of anxiety among healthy pregnant women who are incorrectly screened as positive.

A novel aspect is adapting the threshold of the GHQ-12 to ⩾ 17 in antenatal care.

Recently, there has been a renewed interest in medical students’ mental health. The purpose of this paper is to determine factors associated with psychological distress in medical students and to assess the correlation between major lifestyle behaviours and mental health.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey among 530 medical students randomized from a faculty of medicine in 2017. The authors used the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Simple Lifestyle Indicator Questionnaire (SLIQ) to assess mental health and lifestyle, respectively.

The mean value of GHQ-12 and SLIQ were 4.1±2.8 and 6.2±1.4, respectively. Bivariate correlation analysis showed that SLIQ was significantly correlated to GHQ-12 (r=−0.26; p<0.001). The prevalence of psychological distress (GHQ-12=4) was 50.1%. The authors found that low/middle financial situation of the family (OR=1.5; CI 95%=[1.1–2.3]), internship level, (OR=1.8; CI 95%=[1.1–3.3]), medium/poor perceived academic performance (OR=2.2; CI 95%=[1.5–3.2]) and medium/poor perceived health status (OR=2.3; CI 95%=[1.5–3.6]) were significantly associated with psychological distress. Multivariate analysis performing logistic regression showed that average and unhealthy lifestyle were independently associated with psychological distress, with an adjusted OR of 3.7 (CI 95%=[1.7–7.7]) and 5.8 (CI 95%=[2.4–14.8]), respectively.

The study highlighted the magnitude and the risk factors of psychological distress in medical students. Unhealthy lifestyle was a potential predictive of mental disorders. These findings provide fundamental information for future researches.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of psychological distress of offenders newly brought into prison custody in a Nigerian prison and investigate the relationship with socio-demographic and penal characteristics.

A cross-sectional study involving 236 new prison entrants who were assessed for psychological distress using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).

A total of 267 prison inmates were newly brought to prison custody over a three-month period. Out of this, 236 (88.4 per cent) of them participated in the study. Majority of the inmates were males 225 (95.3 per cent), awaiting-trial inmates 208 (88.1 per cent), single 144 (61 per cent), Christian 224 (94.9 per cent), first time offenders 218 (92.4 per cent) and charged with violent offences 136 (57.6 per cent). Majority of the inmates scored above cut-off points on the GHQ-12 and the HADS. In total, 157 (66.5 per cent) on HADS anxiety subscale, 201 (85.2 per cent) on HADS depression subscale and 199 (84.3 per cent) on GHQ-12. Significant relationship was observed between GHQ-12 “caseness”, prison category and type of offence. Prison situation and type of offence were significantly associated with HADS depression subscale, whereas age was associated with HADS anxiety subscale.

Some limitations were encountered in the course of the study. First, the study relied on self-report questionnaires for collection of data. Second, information given by the respondents could neither be corroborated by family members, who were not present during the interview, nor by the officers and men of the Nigeria Prisons Service, who knew little or nothing about the respondents. Participants in this study had spent maximum of three days in prison during the interview, thus certain levels of distress within three days after incarceration may not entail “caseness” in the sense of the presence of a psychiatric disorder. Therefore assessment over a longer period is needed.

Screening prison inmates on reception into prison custody provides a vista of opportunity to identify mental health problems and socio-demographic and forensic correlates of psychological distress among new entrants into prison custody. This will facilitate early identification and management of prison inmates with health needs. Health screening on reception will also help in identifying the various penal or forensic characteristics of prison inmates, which will be put into consideration during selection of appropriate rehabilitation and reformation activities that best fit a particular prison inmate. Early screening of prison inmates upon reception in the prison will also help in identifying prison inmates who have high risk of suicide and self-harm, thus preventing cases of death that may arise as a result of these mental health problems. Findings from this study will also enrich the body of knowledge on mental health problems of prison inmates entering the prison; this will also help the criminal justice system in decision making, especially with emphasis on psychological evaluation of prison inmates before dispensing judgment. On the part of the prison authority, the prison inmates identified to have psychological distress and some forensic characteristics can be properly classified, and kept in cells that will not aggravate their distress. Finally, this is the first study of prison inmates on reception into Enugu Maximum Security Prison, Enugu State Nigeria. The implication of this is that findings from this research will form a baseline on which further research on prison inmates upon reception in the prison can be conducted.

This study demonstrated that prison inmates are faced with high level of psychological distress during their early days in prison, and that some socio-demographic and forensic variables had significant association with psychological distress as itemised in Tables III and IV. Therefore, screening new inmates on prison reception will help in early identification and treatment of vulnerable groups. This will also help in proper classification and allocation into appropriate cells of prison inmates by the prison authority.

Studies have reported increased psychiatric morbidity among young detainees, with as many as three‐quarters reported to have one or more psychiatric disorders. Despite this, however, there is a dearth of published work among young inmates of prisons, remand homes or borstal institutions in Nigeria. The aim of this study was to assess possible psychiatric morbidity among young inmates of a borstal institution in Nigeria and to determine the factors that may be associated with this morbidity. Fifty‐three inmates of one of the two existing borstal institution in Nigeria were assessed for psychiatric morbidity using the 12‐item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ‐12). The GHQ‐12 scores were compared with the socio‐demographic factors of the respondents. Twenty‐eight (52.8%) of the inmates were over 18 years old, 35.8% were in the middle position within the family, 62.3% were of Christian faith, and 64.2% had their parents still living together. Seventeen (32.1%) of the inmates were from Hausa ethnic extraction, 58.5% stayed for more than 6 months at the borstal institution, and 81.1% were brought to the institution by their parents. The mean age of the inmates was 17.3 years (range, 14‐23 years) and 26 (49.1%) of them were GHQ‐positive. There was no statistically significant difference between the mean age of GHQ‐positive and GHQ‐negative inmates (F=1.73, p=0.19), and none of the socio‐demographic variables were significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity (i.e. GHQ‐12 positivity). The study observed a high prevalence of undetected psychiatric morbidity among inmates at the borstal institution. Efforts should be intensified by the authority responsible for managing the Nigerian prison services (including the borstal institutions) to improve mental health services.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of providing health and well‐being checks and six months support to unpaid carers. Changes in carer stress will be measured between baseline and final assessment.

This is a cross‐sectional, correlational study of the 394 carers recruited and the sub‐group of 348 carers who received support for six months. A T‐test measured change in the carers’ GHQ‐12 scores between baseline and final assessment. A chi‐squared test was used to measure movement in the GHQ‐12 scoring quartiles between baseline and final assessment.

The 348 carers receiving support for six months reported a statistically significant small reduction in their baseline and final assessment scores. The carers identified by the GHQ as having less severe stress scores did better than those with more severe stress levels.

As there was no control group, it was not possible to compare the outcomes of the intervention group with the outcomes of a group of carers receiving care as usual. It is therefore possible that there may be some other factors at play for the intervention group over the six‐month period of support, other than the intervention itself, which have influenced the change in carer stress.

Financial pressures on health and social care budgets can lead to carers’ support services being under‐resourced in some areas. However, the draft Care and Support Bill (July 2012) and the introduction of new mandatory duties may help to ensure that local authorities and health and wellbeing boards meet their obligations to provide services for carers.

There is limited research available on the outcomes of carers’ interventions, particularly those which involve holistic interventions, such as health and well‐being checks being delivered by a multi‐agency partnership.

The study aims to estimate the prevalence of workplace bullying, personal and work-related impacts, reporting practices for bullying, and the reasons for not reporting bullying incidents in the New Zealand pharmacy sector.

An online survey was conducted among registered pharmacists and pharmacist interns in New Zealand from June to August 2020. The questionnaire comprises both close-ended and semi-structured free-text questions. Goldberg’s 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) assessed the respondents’ general psychological health status, and a 22-item Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R) was used to estimate bullying prevalence together with the self-rated/self-labeled questions. The qualitative information obtained from the free-text responses was used to support and elaborate on the quantitative results.

The self-labeled prevalence of workplace bullying was 36.9%, with almost 10% reporting it occurring almost daily to several times per week. The 54.7% prevalence based on the NAQ-R assessment compares well with the prevalence of witnessing the incidents (58.5%). Psychological distress symptoms were experienced by 37.1% in pre-COVID and 45.3% during COVID-year 1. Supervisors or direct managers were the commonest perpetrators (32.7%). Only 28.8% of those who experienced bullying had reported the incidents formally.

This study is cross-sectional, and the relationships indicated are bi-directional. The consistency of the results is reassuring, however inferring causality of effect is challenging. Future studies and analyses should focus on this. This study suggests that in the pharmacy environment bullying from the top is reasonably prevalent, is not commonly reported and requires the design and implementation of prevention and management strategies that take into account and mitigate these bullying factors. Professional pharmacy leadership organizations, National Health Authority and Pharmacy regulators could play a significant role in awareness and training to reduce bullying with the development and promotion of strategies to curb it and improve reporting.

This is the first paper to describe the prevalence and impact of workplace bullying, and the practices of reporting bullying incidents in the New Zealand pharmacy sector. Based on empirical evidence, pharmacists represent a small share of total healthcare workforce, yet the overall prevalence of bullying is consistent with professions with much larger numbers such as medicine and nursing.

The purpose of this research is to analyse the relationship between economic pressure, multi‐tiered subcontracting and occupational health and safety (OHS) outcomes for employee and owner/drivers in long‐haul trucking, using Australian evidence.

The analysis is based on direct interviews with 300 long‐haul drivers, using a structured questionnaire along with an examination of documentary records, statistics and government reports. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered on self‐reported acute and chronic injuries, the incidence of occupational violence, truck crashes, indicators of illicit drug use, hours of work/fatigue and psychological distress.

Variations between owner/drivers and employees working for small and large firms were investigated. Overall, owner/drivers reported worse OHS than small fleet and, more especially, large fleet drivers. Evidence also indicated a connection between economic pressure, the expansion of contingent work and negative OHS outcomes.

Further longitudinal and comparative research is needed to test the hypothesized link between competitive pressures, supply chain rationalization and OHS outcomes. Research to investigate these issues in other countries is required in order to compare findings with those for Australia and to assess the effectiveness of new enforcement initiatives.

Findings suggest the need for policy interventions aimed at improving OHS to address commercial practices, including elaborate subcontracting chains, more explicitly than is currently the case with road transport regulation. Recent moves in this direction are identified.

Unlike manufacturing, healthcare and the public sector, there have been few studies of the OHS effects associated with contingent work arrangements in transport. In addition to helping to fill this gap the paper provides evidence on the effects of competitive pressure and supply chains on work practices and OHS.

Occupational stressors were identified through qualitative interviews with sex offender treatment managers (N = 21) serving within HM prisons in England and Wales. Multidimensional scaling techniques revealed three distinctive stressor foci: intrinsic job factors; other people; personal. The pattern of stressor experience was related to length of time serving as a treatment manager, moving from inner to outward emphasis. The least experienced managers were more concerned about aspects of personal safety, those moderately experienced expressed greatest concern about the quality and consequences of their supervision and the most experienced were exercised by policy related issues. Distress, as measured by GHQ(12) was not statistically significantly related to levels of subjectively reported stress. The paper concludes by discussing implications for intervention.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the evidence on the extent to which personal debt impacts on mental health, and mental health on personal debt.

The paper systematically reviews the English‐language, peer‐reviewed literature, 1980‐2009, drawing on 14 databases across the medical, business, legal, and social science fields.

From 39,333 potential papers identified, 39,283 were excluded, and 50 were reviewed using a narrative analysis approach. Among nine longitudinal studies, three controlled for psychiatric morbidity or psychological wellbeing at baseline, income/wealth, and other socio‐economic variables. From these, two reported indebtedness or an increase in debt levels associated with subsequently poorer mental health, while one study found no such relationship. While methodological limitations make it difficult to definitively demonstrate whether indebtedness causes poorer mental health, plausible data exist which indicate that indebtedness may contribute to the development of mental health problems, and mediate accepted relationships between poverty, low income, and mental disorder.

Existing research either uses definitions of “debt” which lack specificity, or definitions of “mental health” which are too broad‐brushed. A more sensitive set of core questions is needed. Further longitudinal research is also a key priority.

Those working with people with debt problems need to be aware of the potential risk of reduced mental wellbeing or mental disorder.

The mental health of individuals living with indebtedness has become a recent concern for the health and financial services sectors. However, no systematic reviews have so far been conducted.

The purpose of this paper is to report on outcomes for carers of people with dementia who use the services of Hawthorn House, a day respite centre in rural Western Australia that is based on the Eden Principles.

Quantitative and qualitative data from carers was collected and analysed. Quantitative data included the General Health Questionnaire‐12, Zarit Burden Interview, and Eden survey. Qualitative data was from semi‐structured interviews. Validation was confirmed and then simple statistics were generated from the quantitative data. Thematic analysis was used with the qualitative data.

Carers of people with dementia who use the services of Hawthorn House confirm that the Eden Principles are an integral part of Hawthorn House and report better than average health, less stress/burden and better quality of life. Many attribute this to the services they receive from Hawthorn House.

Participants for the study were self‐selecting.

The paper provides verification that the Eden Principles can lead to meaningful and important benefits for carers of people with dementia.

This paper is the first to report on the use of the Eden Principles in a non full‐time respite centre for people with dementia in rural Australia. Further, it describes quantitative and qualitative data on quality of life outcomes for carers as a result of being associated with the centre.