Brief assessment of subjective health complaints: Development, validation and population norms of a brief form of the Giessen Subjective Complaints List (GBB-8)

- A brief form of the Giessen Subjective Complaints List was developed and validated.
- Norm values for the total score and the subscales of the GBB-8 are provided.
- The GBB-8 was found to be a reliable, economic measure of somatic symptom strain.
- The GBB-8 is suitable for epidemiological research and everyday clinical practice.

ObjectiveAlthough there is no causal relationship to medical morbidity, routine clinical assessment of somatic symptoms aids medical diagnosis and assessment of treatment effectiveness. Regardless of their causes, somatic symptoms indicate suffering, distress, and help-seeking behavior. The aim of the present study was to develop and validate a brief self-report questionnaire to assess somatic symptom strain.MethodsA brief form of the Giessen Subjective Complaints List (GBB-8) was developed and validated in a large population sample representative of the Federal Republic of Germany (N = 2008). Psychometric analyses included confirmation of factor structure, classical item analysis, and measurement invariance tests. The sample furthermore served as a norm group. As indicators of construct validity, correlations with measures of anxiety, depression, alexithymia, and primary care contact were computed.ResultsPsychometric analyses yielded excellent scale properties regarding item characteristics, factor structure, and measurement invariance tests (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88; CFI = 0.980, TLI = 0.965, RMSEA = 0.049) for the second-order four-factor model; strict invariance was confirmed for gender, depression status, and physician contacts; strong invariance was confirmed regarding age and age × gender.ConclusionsThe GBB-8 with its four subscales exhaustion, gastrointestinal complaints, musculoskeletal complaints, and cardiovascular complaints proves to be an economic measure of subjective symptom strain. Psychometric analyses deem it suitable for epidemiological research. The availability of norms makes it a potential everyday tool for general practitioners and psychosomatic clinics.