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The Geriatric Depression Scale should be shortened: results of Rasch analysis
Wai Kwong Tang1, Eric Wong, Helen F K Chiu
1Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China. tangwk@cuhk.edu.hk
Background:
The purpose of this study was to examine the unidimensionality, item fit, redundancy and differential item functioning (DIF) of the 15-item version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) in a community sample of 300 Hong Kong Chinese patients with pneumoconiosis.
Methods:
Participants were randomly selected from the case register of the Pneumoconiosis Compensation Fund Board of Hong Kong. A trained research assistant administered the GDS to all participants. A psychiatrist, who was blind to the GDS scores, conducted a structured clinical interview to diagnose depressive disorders according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Version IV (DSM-IV) criteria.
Results:
Of the 300 participants, 37 (12.3%) had a DSM-IV diagnosis of depressive disorders. Eleven out of 15 items (73.3%) had INFIT/OUTFIT statistics between 0.7-1.3. Abbreviated versions were created by removal of misfit and redundant items resulting in similar overall performance as the original 15-item GDS. None of the items had significant DIF for age, level of education and cognitive impairment.
Conclusions:
Although the GDS was overall unidimensional, there was evidence of item redundancy indicating that a shortened version would be as adequate as the original version.