title: Validation of the Slovenian version of Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in female cancer patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The present study describes the translation process of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) into the Slovenian language and the testing of its reliability and validity on the psychological morbidity in female cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The English version of the HADS was translated into the Slovene language using the 'forward-backward' procedure. The questionnaire was used in a study of 202 female cancer patients together with a clinical structured interview (CSI) to measure psychological state. A biserial correlation coefficient was calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The value of biserial correlation coefficient was 0.81 for the depression scale and 0.91 for the anxiety scale.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The validation process of the Slovenian HADS score version shows metric properties similar to those in international studies, suggesting that it measures the same constructs, in the same way, as the original HADS score form. This validation study of the Slovenian version of the HADS proved that it is an acceptable and valid measure of psychological distress among female cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: University Psychiatric Hospital Ljubljana, Studenec 48, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Ilonka Vucko
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Miklavcic
authors.forename: Zvezdana
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Snoj
authors.forename: Janez
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mlakar
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pregelj
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005833:Genital Neoplasms, Female / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D007802:Language; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017524:Slovenia