The WHO-5 Well-Being Index: A Systematic Review of the Literature
By C. W. Topp, S. Østergaard, Susan Søndergaard, P. Bech. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 2015
4,106 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Background: The 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) is among the most widely used questionnaires assessing subjective psychological well-being. Since its first publication in 1998, the WHO-5 has been translated into more than 30 languages and has been used in research studies all over the world. We now provide a systematic review of the literature on the WHO-5. Methods: We conducted a systematic search for literature on the WHO-5 in PubMed and PsycINFO in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. In our review of the identified articles, we focused particularly on the following aspects: (1) the clinimetric validity of the WHO-5; (2) the responsiveness/sensitivity of the WHO-5 in controlled clinical trials; (3) the potential of the WHO-5 as a screening tool for depression, and (4) the applicability of the WHO-5 across study fields. Results: A total of 213 articles met the predefined criteria for inclusion in the review. 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 questionnaire 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.
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Citations in the corpus
- 2017 National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (2012, unknown): “❍ Validated in many languages, is a reliable measure of emotional functioning and screen for depression and has been used extensively in research and clinical care (176), including the DAWN2 study (Diabetes Attitudes, Wishes and Needs 2) (177)”
- The Impact of the Coronavirus Lockdown on Mental Health: Evidence from the US (2020, methodology): “5The WHO-5 index has been shown to perform well as a tool to screen individuals who experience symptoms, or are at risk, of depression and anxiety (Krieger et al., 2014; Topp et al., 2015) and successfully identify individuals whose mental health has deteriorated over the recent past (Bech et al.”
- The effect of age, gender, income, work, and physical activity on mental health during coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown in Austria (2020, background): “Because scales measuring health-related quality of life are conventionally translated to a percentage scale from 0 (absent) to 100 (maximal), it is recommended to multiply the raw score by 4 [27] .”
- Language teachers’ coping strategies during the Covid-19 conversion to online teaching: Correlations with stress, wellbeing and negative emotions (2020, unknown): “WHO-5Well-being Index (Topp et al., 2015): TheWorld Health Organization’s five-item index of wellbeing was used.”