Screening for depression in a geriatric rehabilitation sample.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the utility of a short depression inventory (SDI) for use with elderly medical inpatients.


METHODS
Subjects were 132 consecutive admissions to the inpatient geriatric rehabilitation unit at MetroHealth Medical Center, a general medical teaching hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. Sixty of the original sample qualified for inclusion in the final sample. Within the first five days of admission, all subjects were administered the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE). Ss who scored 20 or above were asked to complete the SDI and the GDI. A clinical interview used DSM-III-R criteria to establish the diagnosis of major depression. The order of presentation of questionnaire or interview was varied to control for the effects of presentation order.


RESULTS
When an optimal cut-off score of 4 or above on the SDI was used, the sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 85% respectively. Using the GDS, sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 90%.


CONCLUSIONS
Using the SDI, impressive sensitivity and specificity were achieved. The SDI was also essentially equivalent to the GDI psychometrically. The SDI appears to have good promise as a depression screen in medical populations.
Gantner
Anita B
AB
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, MetroHealth Medical Center for Rehabilitation, MetroHealth Medical Center, Dept of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Cleveland, OH 44109-1998, USA. agantner@metrohealth.org
Schubert
Daniel S P
DS
Wolf
Sanford R
SR
Creps
Philip
P
D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012047:Rehabilitation Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires