title: Test of item-response bias in the CES-D scale. experience from the New Haven EPESE study.
abstract: We present results of item-response bias analyses of the exogenous variables age, gender, and race for all items from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale using data (N = 2340) from the New Haven component of the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE). The proportional odds of blacks responding higher on the CES-D items "people are unfriendly" and "people dislike me" were 2.29 (95% confidence interval: 1.74, 3.02) and 2.96 (95% confidence interval: 2.15, 4.07) times that of whites matched on overall depressive symptoms, respectively. In addition, the proportional odds of women responding higher on the CES-D item "crying spells" were 2.14 (95% confidence interval: 1.60, 2.82) times that of men matched on overall depressive symptoms. Our data indicate the CES-D would have greater validity among this diverse group of older men and women after removal of the crying item and two interpersonal items.
authors.affiliation: Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. scole@rics.bwh.harvard.edu
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kawachi
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Maller
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Berkman
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015982:Bias; D003237:Connecticut / Q000453:epidemiology; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People