Validation of four measures of mental health against depression and generalized anxiety in a community based sample.

There is a need to validate screening measures of affective and generalized anxiety disorders for use in epidemiological surveys of mental health in the general population. This study examined the diagnostic accuracy of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Goldberg Anxiety and Depression Scales (GAS, GDS) and the 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) Mental Health Component Summary Scale (MCS-12) in a population based longitudinal study in Australia. We report analyses of two narrow age birth cohorts in the Personality and Total Health (PATH) through life study (ages 32-36 and 52-58).

The influence of smoking, sedentary lifestyle and obesity on cognitive impairment-free life expectancy.

Background: Smoking, sedentary lifestyle and obesity are risk factors for mortality and dementia. However, their impact on cognitive impairment-free life expectancy (CIFLE)has not previously been estimated.

Methods: Data were drawn from the DYNOPTA dataset which was derived by harmonizing and pooling common measures from five longitudinal ageing studies.