title: Validation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 for depression screening among Chinese Americans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to validate the Chinese Bilingual version of the Patient Health Questionnaire (CB-PHQ-9) for screening for depression among Chinese Americans in primary care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Chinese-American patients attending a primary care clinic were screened for major depressive disorder (MDD) using the CB-PHQ-9. All patients who scored 15 or higher on the CB-PHQ-9 were interviewed using the Chinese-bilingual Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, patient version. Eight percent of patients who scored less than 15 on the CB-PHQ-9 were randomly selected and interviewed with the depression module of the Chinese-bilingual Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, patient version.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the study, 1940 unduplicated patients completed the CB-PHQ-9. The CB-PHQ-9 had high internal consistency (alpha = 0.91), and the scores of each of its 9 items had moderate to moderately high correlations (0.52-0.85) with the total scores. The sensitivity and specificity of the CB-PHQ-9 for recognizing MDD were found to be 81% and 98%, respectively, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was estimated to be 0.97 (SE, 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The CB-PHQ-9 is a valid and useful instrument for screening for MDD among Chinese Americans in primary care.
authors.affiliation: Depression Clinical and Research Program, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. ayeung@partners.org
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yeung
authors.forename: Freddy
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.forename: Shu-Ching
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Sienna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vorono
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ly
authors.forename: Shirley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fava
mesh_terms: D001213:Asian / Q000208:ethnology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires