Introduction:

Owing to its importance in the development and evaluation of health policies in favor of the general population, there is currently a greater interest in the study of well-being. Therefore, a valid and reliable measurement of well-being is necessary. In this context, this study evaluated the evidence of validity based on the internal structure, reliability, and factor invariance by sex of the General Well-Being Index (WHO-5 WBI).

Materials and Methods:

A total of 499 university students (female = 271; male = 228) from the city of Trujillo, Peru, participated in the study. A confirmatory factor analysis, reliability by internal consistency, and factor invariance by sex were performed using a multigroup analysis.

Results:

The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the 5-dimensional model with 5 correlated errors of items 1 and 4 presented a good fit (X2 =9.667 [gl = 4], p > 0.05; X2/gl = 2.416; CFI = 0.994; RMSEA = 0.053 [IC90% 0.006-0.097]; SRMR = 0.018). In addition, acceptable reliability (ω = 0.758) and factor invariance by sex were reported.

Conclusion:

The WHO-5 WBI demonstrated empirical evidence in favor of validity based on internal structure, reliability of scores, and factor invariance that allow for a useful and rapid instrument for measuring subjective well-being in university students.

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