Symptom Questionnaire anxiety and depression scales: reliability and validity

Many instruments have been developed with college students and used primarily with students or younger adults. Thus, researchers face challenges in selecting measures of psychological state that are valid and reliable for use with elders. This article describes a measure of psychological state, the Symptom Questionnaire; provides information about its reliability and validity; and details the steps used to evaluate reliability and validity of its anxiety and depression scales for elders hospitalized for an acute episode of a chronic condition. The findings suggest that a short version of the Symptom Questionnaire, consisting of the depression and anxiety scales, is valid and reliable for elders. The findings also revealed small differences between the means of data collected using the short version and those obtained using the full instrument.