Mental health of urban residents in the developed cities of the Yangtze River Delta in China: Measurement with the mental composite scale from the WHOQOL-BREF

摘要

This paper aims to explore the reliability, validity and influence of demographics on mental health measured by the mental composite scale from the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) among Chinese urban residents. Participants were 971 young and middle-aged urban residents in six developed cities of Yangtze River Delta. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the potential factor structure of the mental composite scale. Confirmatory factor analysis was employed to evaluate the goodness of fit of the factor structure model. And logistic regression model was conducted to analyze the demographic effect. The results showed that the mental composite scale had a satisfactory reliability and validity, and the three-factor structure model had an acceptable goodness of fit. Furthermore, it indicated that annual income was the significant indicator of mental health. Participants who had earned between RMB50,000 - RMB100,000 annually were more likely to report better mental health than those with annual income less than RMB10,000. It demonstrated therefore that the mental composite scale selected from the WHOQOL-BREF was an appropriate instrument to measure the mental health of Chinese urban residents in the Yangtze River Delta region.