Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale WEMWBS
Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale WEMWBS overview
Creator and Context
The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS) is a 14 item measure of mental wellbeing, developed by Tennant, Hiller, Fishwick, Platt, Joseph, Weich, Parkinson, Secker and Stewart-Brown, and published in 2007.
It was created by an expert panel across the Universities of Warwick and Edinburgh with funding from NHS Health Scotland. Every item is positively worded, which is deliberate: it measures wellbeing, not illness. A licence is required, including for NHS use.
Presenting Conditions
WEMWBS measures mental wellbeing as a single construct, covering both hedonic wellbeing (positive affect and life satisfaction) and eudaimonic wellbeing (positive functioning and satisfying relationships).
It is confirmed as a single factor and has no subscales. Do not report domain scores.
Administration
Self completed only, taking about two minutes. Each of the 14 statements is rated for the last 2 weeks on a 5 point scale from None of the time (1) to All of the time (5). Warwick warns that reading the items aloud or completing on the respondent's behalf introduces positive bias.
A 7 item short form, the SWEMWBS, is also available and uses a Rasch based score transformation.
Desired Audience
The general adult population aged 16 and over, and validated down to age 13. It is designed for population monitoring and programme evaluation rather than individual clinical monitoring or screening.
WEMWBS is the measure funders and commissioners ask for when the question is whether a programme improved wellbeing rather than reduced symptoms. If your outcome reporting has to speak to public health and prevention money, this is usually the instrument that speaks its language.
Considerations
It is not designed to screen for mental illness or to track individuals.
Warwick states that all high wellbeing cut points are by definition arbitrary, as there is no gold standard for wellbeing.
Self completion matters. Assisted completion biases scores upward.
A paid annual licence is required. Charges were introduced for NHS users from 1 December 2024, and a non commercial licence does not permit sharing the scale with other parties.
How to score the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale WEMWBS
Conducting the assessment
The person rates all 14 positively worded statements for the last two weeks on the 1 to 5 scale.
Interpretation
Items are summed to give a total from 14 to 70, where higher means better wellbeing.
The UK general population mean is 51.0 with a standard deviation of around 7 (Tennant et al., 2007).
Using a one standard deviation approach, scores of 60 to 70 fall in the top 15 percent and 14 to 42 in the bottom 15 percent.
Using a benchmarking approach against the CES-D, scores of 41 to 44 suggest possible or mild depression and scores below 41 suggest probable clinical depression.
The minimally important change is between 3 and 8 points depending on the method used.
Clinical Considerations
Use WEMWBS for groups and programmes, not to make decisions about an individual.
Treat the low wellbeing thresholds as indicative. Warwick is explicit that there is no gold standard.
Keep the administration mode consistent, and never complete it on someone's behalf.
Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale WEMWBS use cases
Population level wellbeing monitoring
Evaluating wellbeing and prevention programmes
Funder and commissioner outcome reporting
Public health and epidemiological research
Category
General Well-being
Research Summary
Tennant, R., Hiller, L., Fishwick, R., Platt, S., Joseph, S., Weich, S., Parkinson, J., Secker, J., & Stewart-Brown, S. (2007). The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): Development and UK validation. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 5, 63.
Clarke, A., Friede, T., Putz, R., et al. (2011). Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS): Validated for teenage school students in England and Scotland. BMC Public Health, 11, 487.
Maheswaran, H., Weich, S., Powell, J., & Stewart-Brown, S. (2012). Evaluating the responsiveness of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMWBS). Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 10, 156.
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