GAI

COMMERCIALISATION STORIES

ASSESSING ANXIETY
IN THE AGEING

A simple assessment tool is helping to identify

UQ’S RESEARCH EXCELLENCE TO
EXCELLENCE PLUS WITH UNIQUEST
UQ Research Strength: Public Health and
Health Services
UQ Innovator(s): Associate Professor Nancy
Pachana and Professor
Gerard Byrne
UQ Faculty or Institute: Faculty of Health and
Behavioural Sciences,
and Faculty of Medicine
and Biomedical Sciences
UQ Research Outcome: A simple assessment tool to
assess and help better manage
anxiety in the elderly
UniQuest IP Position: Trademark and copyright
UniQuest Partnering: Packaging and sales support
(licensing direct and via
UniQuest’s e-shop)
UniQuest Sale (licensing) of
Commercialisation: GAI questionnaire
and better manage anxiety in the elderly.
IMPROVING QUALITY OF LIFE
While everyone has experienced anxiety at one time or another,
ongoing high levels of anxiety have the potential to impact on the
overall health and wellbeing of older people. To instigate appropriate
treatments for older adults with anxiety, improved assessment is
needed. With this in mind, a team from The University of Queensland
(UQ) has developed a diagnostic tool to enable easier and more
accurate screening of anxiety in older people.
GERIATRIC ANXIETY INVENTORY
Called the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI), the tool consists of a
20-item questionnaire covering topics related to anxiety symptoms.
These typical symptoms include feelings of fearfulness, worry,
physical symptoms of anxiety such as a nervous stomach and
concerns about the impacts of worry and anxiety. There is also a
shorter 5-item version suitable for incorporation in a more general
mental health assessment process.
The design of the questionnaire is straightforward and intentionally
limits the response options to “agree” or “disagree”, allowing the GAI
to be easily administered by a range of health care professionals, or
indeed be self-administered by an individual. The GAI is also simple
enough to be effectively administered over the telephone.
 GAI
OLDER ADULT SPECIFIC
Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychiatric disorders
in older adults. However while anxiety is very prevalent in older
people, dementia is also a common illness in this group and this
can lead to mood disorders such as anxiety and depression being
overlooked as the symptoms are similar.
This is made more problematic by there being little research on
diagnosing anxiety in this age group. Many of the previously
available measures of adult anxiety were not validated with older
populations and those that had been validated, were inadequate in
certain contexts. In addition, many of the self-report tests that have
been used in the past with older adults, were originally designed for
younger populations and so are less than ideal in reflecting the age-
specific symptoms of anxiety.
GAI was developed specifically to fill this gap and reflects years of
research led by Associate Professors Nancy Pachana from the UQ
School of Psychology, and Professor Gerard
Byrne from the UQ School of Medicine.
The result is this simple tool which allows
screening for dimensional anxiety in older
adults who may have anxiety, yet have not
been properly diagnosed.
TRANSLATION AND COMMERCIALISATION
The 20-item questionnaire was compiled and extensively tested,
in consultation with a reference group consisting of psychologists,
psychiatrists and normal older people. The choice and structure of
questions was crucial, as many older adults experience some level
of cognitive impairment or co-existing medical condition - making
it difficult to distinguish these symptoms from those of an anxiety
disorder.
UniQuest recognised the potential benefits of GAI for clinicians,
healthcare systems and families early in its development at The
University of Queensland. Before GAI, there was no widely accepted
instrument to measure dimensional anxiety in both healthy older
people and older people with mental health problems. Improved
anxiety assessment is needed for older adults to instigate
appropriate treatments.
In a commercialisation partnership with UniQuest, UQ’s innovation
and commercialisation company, the GAI researchers have gained
exposure on a global scale, with their product used in over 20
countries. The questionnaire has been translated into over 13
languages and will be the first product available from UniQuest’s
online e-shop to be launched in late 2014.
COMMERCIALISATION STORIES
PARTNER WITH UNIQUEST
UniQuest is one of Australia’s leading research
commercialisation companies. It specialises in global
technology transfer and facilitates access for all business
sectors to the world class expertise, intellectual property and
facilities at The University of Queensland, Australia.
OUR TRACK RECORD
UniQuest enters into over 400 research contracts per year
– many repeat clients from industry.
UniQuest has created over 70 companies from its intellectual
property portfolio, and since 2000 UniQuest and its start
ups have raised more than $490 million to take university
technologies to market. UQ technologies licensed by
UniQuest – including UQ’s cervical cancer vaccine technology
and image correction technology in magnetic resonance
imaging machines – have resulted in combined sales of
final products in the order of $10 billion net sales between
2007-2013.
If you want to know more about this commercialisation story
or other offerings from Science and UniQuest then contact
Dr Howard Leemon, Senior Director – Social Enterprise in
IP Commercialisation by mobile +61 (0)410 449 827, email
h.leemon@uniquest.com.au or visit www.uniquest.com.au
THE GA I
JOURNEY SO FAR
The
�  Geriatric Anxiety Inventory is a 20-item
questionnaire covering topics related to anxiety
symptoms specifically for older adults
Before
�  GAI, there was no widely accepted instrument
to measure anxiety in both healthy older people and
older people with mental health problems. Improved
anxiety assessment is needed for older adults to
instigate appropriate treatments
UniQuest
�  helped GAI researchers bring their ideas
to the attention of influential clinicians and healthcare
providers, with potentially millions of elderly people
benefiting as a result
The
�  U.S. Department of Health & Human
Services’ National Guidelines Clearing House has
recommended the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory as
being an appropriate measure for the assessment of
anxiety in older adults
GAI
�  is available to end-users and health organisations
in over 13 languages and, as of late 2014, will be
available for purchase online from UniQuest’s e-shop