Reliability and validity of the Haitian Creole PHQ-9

There is limited information on depression in Haitians and this is partly attributable to the absence of culturally and linguistically adapted measures for depression.

To perform a psychometric evaluation of the Haitian-Creole version of the PHQ-9 administered to men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Republic of Haiti.

This study uses a cross-sectional design and data are from the Integrated Behavioral and Biological HIV Survey (IBBS) for MSM in Haiti.

Inclusion criteria required that participants be male, ≥ 18 years, report sexual relations with a male partner in the last 12 months, and lived in Haiti during the past 3 months. Respondent Driven Sampling was used for participant recruitment.

A structured questionnaire was verbally administered in Haitian-Creole capturing information on sociodemographics, sexual behaviors, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) status and depressive symptomatology using the PHQ-9. Psychometric analyses of the translated PHQ-9 assessed unidimensionality, factor structure, reliability, construct validity, and differential item functioning (DIF) across subgroups (age, educational level, sexual orientation and HIV status).

In a study population of 1,028 MSM, the Haitian-Creole version of the PHQ-9 is unidimensional, has moderately high internal consistency reliability (α = 0.78), and shows evidence of construct validity where HIV-positive subjects have greater depression (p = 0.002). There is no evidence of DIF across age, education, sexual orientation or HIV status. HIV-positive MSM are twice as likely to screen positive for moderately severe and severe depressive symptoms compared to their HIV-negative counterparts.

There is strong evidence for the psychometric adequacy of the translated PHQ-9 screening tool as a measure of depression with MSM in Haiti. Future research is necessary to examine the predictive validity of depression for subsequent health behaviors or clinical outcomes among Haitian MSM.