Screening for depression and assessing change in severity of depression. Is the Geriatric Depression Scale (30-, 15- and 8-item versions) useful for both purposes in nursing home patients?

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine the ability of the 30-, 15-and 8-item versions of the GDS for screening and assessing change in severity of depression in nursing home patients. The GDS and the MADRS were administered to 350 elderly NH-patients by trained interviewers. The presence of major (MaD) or minor depression (MinD) was evaluated with the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry. Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves of the GDS-versions were performed to measure the ability to screen on depression. The ability to measure change in severity of depression was measured by differences in mean GDS-scores and mean MADRS-scores between patients with MaD, MinD and no depression, and expressed in terms of effect sizes. It was found that in ROC-curves all three GDS-versions performed well. The MADRS showed larger effect sizes for the differences between MaD, MinD and no depression than the GDS-versions. The effect sizes of the three GDS versions were comparable. We conclude that all three versions of the GDS can be used for screening on depression among NH-patients. The MADRS is superior to the GDS for assessment of (changes in) severity of depression, but the GDS also appears to be an acceptable instrument for this purpose and is less time-consuming.

The reliability of three depression rating scales in a general population of Dutch older persons

“…The internal consistency of the MADRS (a ¼ 0.68) was acceptable, indicating that the items of the MADRS reflect depressive symptoms in a healthy study population reasonably well. Three other studies on the internal consistency of the MADRS showed inconsistent results in different study populations (Table 4) (Hammond, 1998;Suzuki et al, 2005;Smalbrugge et al, 2008). The Cronbach's alpha of 0.41 for the GDS-15 in our study is low, which might be attributed to the strongly skewed distribution and the small variance, probably due to the yes/no answer format.…”

“…The Cronbach's alpha of 0.41 for the GDS-15 in our study is low, which might be attributed to the strongly skewed distribution and the small variance, probably due to the yes/no answer format. Other studies reported better results in various study populations with a higher number of depressed subjects (Table 4) (Yesavage et al, 1982;D'Ath et al, 1994;Jongenelis et al, 2005;Batistoni et al, 2007;Smalbrugge et al, 2008).…”

Prevalence of depression and its associated factors among Chinese elderly people: A comparison study between community-based population and hospitalized population

“…The GDS has 30 items and each one was coded as 0 (no) or 1 (yes). The GDS has been used in numerous studies on geriatric depression both domestic and overseas, and its reliability and validity are excellent (Yesavage et al, 1983;Chau et al, 2006;Chan, 1996;Debruyne et al, 2009;Smalbruge et al, 2008). In this study, participants with a GDS total score of 11 or above were classified as depressed.…”

Development of the psychometric property of a Minimum Data-Set-Based Depression Rating Scale for use in long-term care facilities in Taiwan

“…The GDS has been utilized in LTC institutions in many countries (Jongenelis et al, 2005;Smalbrugge, Jongenelis, Pot, Beekman, & Eefsting, 2008). It is easy to administer and could play a role in detection at a lower cut-point, especially in residential care and assisted living settings that may have already adopted its use (Watson & Coben, 2009).…”