Short anxiety screening test—a brief instrument for detecting anxiety in the elderly

Abstract

Introduction The Short Anxiety Screening Test (SAST), an easily administered rating scale, was developed to standardize the detection of anxiety disorder in the elderly, even, and especially, in the presence of depression. The instrument also included somatic complaints, often the manifestation of anxiety in the elderly. Failure to relate to the anxiety component in depression may result in the initial failure of antidepressant therapy. Objective To validate the SAST in the elderly, especially in the presence of depression. Design The SAST was validated against a psychiatric evaluation in consecutive patients attending a geriatric service, both inpatient and outpatient. The initial validity of the SAST was tested in all the sample and subsequently in the subgroups of depressed and non‐depressed. Setting An urban geriatric service in Israel. Patients One hundred and fifty medical inpatients and outpatients, 95 females, aged 70 years and older. Measures Psychiatric evaluation of modified Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM‐IV as criterion standard for anxiety and depression, SAST for anxiety and short Zung Interview‐Assisted Depression Rating Scale for depression. Results By the psychiatrist's evaluation, 40.7% suffered from anxiety. Mean SAST scores in the presence and absence of anxiety were significantly different (25.3 and 20.1; p<0.0005). The overall validity of the SAST was high (sensitivity 75.4%, specificity 78.7%). In the presence of depression, sensitivity was 83.3% and specificity 70.5%. Conclusion The SAST was valid in detecting anxiety in the elderly, as well as in depressed patients. The study proved the usefulness of the SAST in a geriatric assessment programme. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Short Anxiety Screening Test in Greek: translation and validation

“…Furthermore, the Greek version of SAST was able to discriminate between male and female patients. This result sues for the original study for the development of the SAST (25.3 vs 20.1) [24]. …”

Association between domains of quality of life and patients with Klinefelter syndrome: a systematic review

“…0.49), which was significantly different (F (1,52) = 13.2, P = 0.001). Social behaviour – Overall social distress 1.002 IIEF, International Index of Erectile function ( 75 ); SAS, Social anxiety scale ( 78 ); SRS, The Social Responsiveness Scale ( 80 ); SAST, Short Anxiety Screening test ( 76 ); SCST, Social cognitive skills test ( 77 ); SRSS, Social skills rating scale ( 79 ). …”

Fall-Related Psychological Concerns and Anxiety among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Among the twenty studies, a total of ten different scales are used to measure anxiety (see S3 Table ). Among these scales, only four present an adequate amount of psychometric information for their use with older adults [i.e., Geriatric Anxiety Inventory [ 57 , 58 ], State-Trait Anxiety Inventory [ 58 – 61 ], the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale [ 58 , 62 , 63 ] and the Short Anxiety Screening Test [ 64 ]], even though most have at least some psychometric information demonstrating their adequacy of use with this population [ 58 , 65 – 72 ].…”