title: Depression in the elderly in Vellore, South India: the use of a two-question screen.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health, Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Biswas
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Vanjare
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bose
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Selvarajan
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aaron
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nitya
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Iyer
authors.forename: N S M
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.forename: K R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: John
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Jacob
mesh_terms: 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