Using the minimum data set 2.0 mood disturbance items as a self-report screening instrument for depression in nursing home residents.
OBJECTIVE
Seeking to enhance nursing home residents' involvement in their care, the authors examined whether the Minimum Data Set, Version 2.0 (MDS) Mood Disturbance items could be administered by self-report. They compared the MDS to the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) in terms of its association with depression diagnosis.


METHODS
Subjects (N=204) were nursing home residents who were interviewed with a psychiatric diagnostic instrument, the GDS, and a self-report version of the MDS mood disturbance items.


RESULTS
Analyses of variance and receiver operating characteristics analyses demonstrated that MDS items distinguished subjects with any versus no depression about as well as did the GDS. This pattern held within cognitive, gender, and ethnicity subgroups.


CONCLUSIONS
The MDS Mood Disturbance items can be reliably and validly administered via self-report to persons scoring at least 12 on the Mini-Mental State Exam.
Ruckdeschel
Katy
K
University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychiatry and Philadelphia VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Thompson
Richard
R
Datto
Catherine J
CJ
Streim
Joel E
JE
Katz
Ira R
IR
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D009735:Nursing Homes; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012114:Residential Treatment; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires