title: Development of the Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale and its short form among elderly psychiatric patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic validity of the Korean version of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-K) and its short form among elderly psychiatric patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  After three preliminary trials, the authors translated the GDS, including the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form (SGDS) into Korean. The GDS-K, the Korean version of the SGDS (SGDS-K), Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRS-D), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) were administered to 154 elderly psychiatric patients. In addition, the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS-III-R) was administered independently to diagnose DSM-III-R major depression. Reliability and validity test, optimal cutoff point estimation, and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis were performed to investigate the diagnostic validity of the GDS-K and SGDS-K.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Internal consistency-reliability and concurrent validity of the GDS-K and SGDS-K associated with other depression scales (HRS-D, CES-D) were excellent. Content validity and discriminant validity, which differentiate DSM-III-R major depression from nonmajor depression was also good. We suggest a score of 16 as the optimal cutoff point of GDS-K for screening DSM-III-R major depression among clinical populations and a score of 8 as optimal cutoff score of SGDS-K. ROC curve analysis indicated high diagnostic validity for both GDS-K and SGDS-K in assessing DSM-III-R major depression. Moreover, we found that the GDS-K and SGDS-K were highly correlated (r=.9522). This finding suggests that the SGDS-K can be used as an adequate substitute for the GDS-K.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The GDS-K and SGDS-K proved valid and reliable case-finding tools for screening DSM-III-R major depression among the elderly psychiatric patients in Korea. The relatively high cutoff points of both the GDS-K and SGDS-K require further evaluation from the viewpoint of culturally determined response style in elderly Koreans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Inha University Hospital, Incheon, South Korea.
authors.forename: Jae Nam
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Maeng Je
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cho
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires