Depression in the elderly in Vellore, South India: the use of a two-question screen.
BACKGROUND
Depression in the elderly is a common and disabling condition. The aim of the study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of a two-question screen to identify depression and common mental disorders in the elderly.


METHODS
Residents of a ward in the town of Vellore were identified by a door-to-door survey from which 204 subjects aged over 60 years were selected for the study by systematic random sampling. They were screened using the two-question screen. The Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R) was employed to confirm the diagnosis.


RESULTS
The prevalence of depression and common mental disorder, using the CIS-R standard, was found to be 31.5%. The two-question screen has a sensitivity of 93.8% and specificity of 48.2%.


CONCLUSIONS
The high sensitivity of the two-question screen makes it a useful screening method which can be employed by health workers in the field.
Biswas
S S
SS
Department of Community Health, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.
Gupta
R
R
Vanjare
H A
HA
Bose
S
S
Patel
J A
JA
Selvarajan
S
S
Aaron
J
J
Nitya
E
E
Iyer
D S
DS
Jacob
N S M
NS
John
K R
KR
Jacob
K S
KS
D000368:Aged; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged