The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) as a brief screening tool for depression: a study of Iranian college students

Dadfar, Mahboubeh; Lester, David; Hosseini, Agha Fatemeh; Eslami, Monireh

doi:10.1080/13674676.2021.1956884

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…This may be due to many studies about depression being done mainly among HIV-positive people in the country ( 71 ). Validation of the PHQ-9 in other languages, clinical or vulnerable groups, and cultures can widen the tool's application and acceptance due to its being simple to understand by patients and accuracy in detecting depression ( 68 , 72 , 73 ). Despite the tool not being validated in many special groups in the country, the PHQ-9 has shown good reliability at a cutoff of 10 in several groups, including (i) patients receiving psychiatry care, Cronbach alpha of 0.87, sensitivity of 93%, and specificity of 52% ( 74 ); (ii) bariatric surgery candidates; sensitivity of 75% and specificity of 76% ( 75 ); (iii) university students, internal consistency of 0.85; sensitivity of 85%, and specificity of 99% ( 76 ); (iv) patients with multiple sclerosis, Cronbach alpha of 0.82; specificity of 88%, and sensitivity of 95% ( 77 ); (v) geriatric population, internal consistency of 0.89, sensitivity of 95%, and specificity of 67% ( 78 ); and (vi) patients with psychiatric condition, Cronbach alpha of 0.88 following translation in Farsi; good correlations with PHQ-15 (0.64), and BDI-13 (0.70) ( 72 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychometrics of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in Uganda: A Systematic Review

et al. 2022

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BackgroundDepression is screened by many psychological tools, whereas the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) is one of the most commonly used self-administered tools. Uganda is a culturally diverse country with a wide variety of tribes, ethnic groups, languages, and disease conditions; it is urgent to know the psychometrics of the used PHQ-9 across different cohorts. However, there is no prior review to assess its reliability in this culturally diverse country, where this review fulfills the knowledge gap.MethodsAdhering to the PRISMA guideline, a systematic search was performed in several databases (i.e., PubMed, Africa-Wide Information, AJOL, and PsycINFO, among others), and a total of 51 articles were included in this review, confirming the study inclusion criteria (e.g., using the PHQ-9).ResultsThe PHQ-9 has been used among individuals above 10 years and both genders, and the tool has been used most among the HIV patient group (n = 28). The tool is frequently administered by interviews and has been translated into several languages (mostly Luganda, n = 31). A cutoff of 10 was commonly used to identify clinical or major depression (n = 23), and its prevalence ranged from 8 to 67%. It has been validated for use in two populations, (i) HIV-positive participants and (ii) the general population attending a health facility. The sensitivity and specificity were 92 and 89%, respectively, at a cutoff score of 10, whereas 67 and 78%, respectively, at a cutoff score of 5. The Cronbach alpha ranged between 0.68 and 0.94.ConclusionThe PHQ-9 has been used in several studies in Uganda but validated in only two populations and is commonly used in one language. Thus, validation of the tool in various populations and languages is warranted to improve the tool's acceptance in Uganda.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychometrics of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in Uganda: A Systematic Review

et al. 2022

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“…Validation studies have found the PHQ-9 to have good construct validity and reliability. Validation studies among university students reported internal consistencies of a=0.85 in Nigeria, a=0.83 in South Africa and a=0.84 in Iran (36)(37)(38). The PHQ-9 was also found to have good test-retest reliability (r=0.894, p<0.001) and displayed good convergence with the GAD-7 and PHQ-ADS at 0.751 and 0.934, respectively, and both significant at p<0.001 (31, 36b).…”

Section: Mental Distressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental distress, food insecurity and university student dropout during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: evidence from South Africa

Wagner,

Makuapane

et al. 2024

Front. Psychiatry

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BackgroundStudent dropout has been a key issue facing universities for many years. The COVID-19 pandemic was expected to exacerbate these trends; however, international literature has produced conflicting findings. Limited literature from Africa has investigated the impact of COVID-19 on student dropout trends, despite the documented devastation, including increased risk of food insecurity and mental distress, caused by the pandemic.ObjectiveThis work seeks to understand the impact of food insecurity and mental distress on student dropout during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsUsing a cross-sectional research design, first-year undergraduate students from a large South African university were recruited via email to participate in a survey between September and October 2020. The Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) was used to measure food insecurity and the Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety and Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS) was used to measure mental distress. Multivariate regression was used to investigate factors associated with student dropout.ResultsThe student dropout rate was 10.5% (95% CI: 8.2-13.2). The prevalence of severe food insecurity was 25.7% (95% CI: 22.3-29.4) and the prevalence of severe mental distress symptoms was 26.7% (95% CI: 23.3-30.4). Dropout rates and levels of food insecurity were highest among students residing in remote areas during the lockdown at 19.2% and 43.6%, respectively. The multivariate logistic regression revealed that being male increased the probability of dropout almost three-fold (odds ratio (OR) = 2.70; 95% CI: 1.48-4.89, p =0.001)). Being moderately food insecure increased the odds of dropout more than two-fold (OR=2.50; 95% CI:1.12-5.55, p=0.025), and experiencing severe mental distress symptoms increased the odds of dropout seven-fold (OR=7.08; 95% CI:2.67-18.81, p<0.001).ConclusionWhile acknowledging that various factors and complexities contribute to student dropout, the increased vulnerability to food insecurity and mental distress, stemming from issues such as widespread job losses and isolation experienced during the pandemic, may have also had an impact on dropout. This work reiterates the importance of directing additional support to students who are food insecure and those who are experiencing mental distress in order to mitigate university student dropout.

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“…Because of its simplicity and excellent psychometric properties, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9; (16)] is one of the most used tools for screening depression in primary care settings (17)(18)(19)(20). We acknowledge that the PHQ-9 has been translated into several languages and that it is used in several countries in which its psychometric properties have been examined [e.g., (21,22)].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because of its simplicity and excellent psychometric properties, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9; ( 16 )] is one of the most used tools for screening depression in primary care settings ( 17 – 20 ). We acknowledge that the PHQ-9 has been translated into several languages and that it is used in several countries in which its psychometric properties have been examined [e.g., ( 21 , 22 )]. Nevertheless, we focus our brief literature review on the Spanish version of the PHQ-9 in studies of its psychometric properties conducted in Spanish-speaking countries.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of the psychometric properties of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) Spanish version in a sample of Puerto Rican workers

et al. 2023

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BackgroundThis study aimed to examine the internal structure and assess the psychometric properties of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in a Puerto Rican sample of workers. This instrument is a nine-item questionnaire, which was conceptualized as a unidimensional structure; however, there are mixed results regarding this internal structure. This measure is used in the occupational health psychology context in organizations in Puerto Rico; nevertheless, there is little evidence of its psychometric properties with samples of workers.Materials and methodsA total of 955 samples from two different study samples were used in this cross-sectional study design in which the PHQ-9 was used. We conducted confirmatory factor analysis, bifactor analysis, and random intercept item factor analysis to examine the internal structure of the PHQ-9. Moreover, a two-factor model was examined by randomly assigning items to the two factors. Measurement invariance across sex and the relationship with other constructs were examined.ResultsThe best-fitted model was the bifactor model followed by the random intercept item factor. The five sets of two-factor models with items randomly assigned obtained acceptable and similar fit indices regardless of the items.ConclusionThe results suggest that the PHQ-9 appears to be a reliable and valid instrument to measure depression. The more parsimonious interpretation of its scores, for now, is a unidimensional structure. Comparison across sex appears to be useful in occupational health psychology research settings since the results suggest that the PHQ-9 is invariant regarding this variable.

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The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) as a brief screening tool for depression: a study of Iranian college students

Cited by 9 publications

References 46 publications

Psychometrics of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in Uganda: A Systematic Review

Psychometrics of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in Uganda: A Systematic Review

Mental distress, food insecurity and university student dropout during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020: evidence from South Africa

Review of the psychometric properties of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) Spanish version in a sample of Puerto Rican workers

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