Abstract
Background
The aim of this study was to validate the 8-item Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-8) against the 20-item version (CES-D-20) in a large sample of community-dwelling older people.
Methods
Scales were compared for correlation and internal consistency. The ideal cut-off score for the CES-D-8 was determined by comparing scores ranging from 7 to 12 on the CES-D-8 to CES-D-20.
Results
8033 participants were included. The Spearman co-efficient between the scales was 0.8980 indicating high degree of correlation. At a score of 9/24, the sensitivity and specificity of the CES-D-8 were 98 and 83%, respectively. The Cohen’s κ for a score of 9 was 0.7855, indicating strong agreement and the ROC area was 0.88.
Conclusion
When compared to the CES-D-20, the CES-D-8 is a valid and reliable measure of depressive symptoms in community-dwelling older people, and a score of 9 can be used to identify those with clinically significant symptoms.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Irish Government, the Atlantic Philanthropies and Irish Life plc. These funders had no involvement in the study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the paper or submission for publication. Any views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of the Department of Health and Children or of the Minister for Health.
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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Ethical approval
The study was approved by the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee at Trinity College Dublin. All experimental procedures adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki.
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All participants gave informed written consent.
Appendices
Appendices
Appendix A: 20-item CES-D items (with 8-item CES-D items indicated by asterisk)
I was bothered by things that usually don’t bother me
I did not feel like eating; my appetite was poor
I felt that I could not shake off the blues with help from my family/friends
I felt I was just as good as other people
I had trouble keeping my mind on what I was doing
I felt depressed*
I felt everything I did was an effort*
I felt hopeful about the future
I felt my life had been a failure
I felt fearful
My sleep was restless*
I was happy*
I talked less than usual
I felt lonely*
People were unfriendly
I enjoyed life*
I had crying spells
I felt sad*
I felt people disliked me
I could not ‘get going’*
Appendix B
See Table 4.
Appendix C
See Table 5.
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Briggs, R., Carey, D., O’Halloran, A.M. et al. Validation of the 8-item Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale in a cohort of community-dwelling older people: data from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). Eur Geriatr Med 9, 121–126 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-017-0016-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41999-017-0016-0