Culture and Well-being: Art as Prescription Therapy ("Art on Prescription")

The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS)

The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS). This tool was developed in order to measure mental wellbeing in the general population by Tennant et al. (2007). It consists of 14 items responding using a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (never) to 5 (all the time). The overall score is calculated by summing the responses for every item without reversing none. The minimum overall score ranges from 14 to 70. Higher scores indicate increased mental wellbeing. The scale has been widely used nationally and internationally for monitoring, evaluating projects and programmes and investigating the determinants of mental wellbeing. An efficient internal consistency was proven using Cronbach's alpha score which was 0.89 for the student sample and 0.91 for the general population sample. Also, test-retest reliability at one week was high (0.83). The Greek validation showed acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha score 0.90).

Time frame: 3 months

The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)

The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is a questionnaire which measures depression and grade severity of symptoms in general medical and mental health settings using nine DSM-5 criteria for major depression within the last two weeks. PHQ-9 constructed by Kroenke et al. (2001) and validated in Greek by Hyphantis et al. (2011) is using a four-point Likert-type scale. After summing all responses (0=not at all, 3=nearly every day), scores range from 0 to 27, with higher levels indicating increased symptom severity (0-4 no to minimal; 5-9 mild; 10-14 moderate; 15-19 moderately severe; 20-27 severe). The internal reliability of the PHQ-9 was excellent, with a Cronbach's α of 0.89 in the PHQ Primary Care Study (Kroenke et al., 2001) and 0.82 in Greek validation (Hyphantis et al., 2011).

Time frame: 3 months

Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7)

The Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7) is provided to screen symptom severity for the four most common anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social phobia and posttraumatic stress disorder). GAD-7 constructed by Spitzer et al (2006) and validated in Greek by Vogazianos et al (2022). It consists of 7 items. The GAD-7 score is computed by assigning scores of 0, 1, 2, and 3, to the response categories of 'not at all', 'several days', 'more than half the days', and 'nearly every day', respectively, and summing together the scores for the seven questions (scores range from 0 to 21). Higher levels indicate increased anxiety. There are cut-offs for severity of anxiety as: (i) score 0-4: Minimal Anxiety; (ii) score 5-9: Mild Anxiety; (iii) score 10-14: Moderate Anxiety; (iv) score greater than 15: Severe Anxiety. The internal consistency of the GAD-7 was excellent (Cronbach α = 0.92) (Spitzer et al., 2006).