Self-report of depressive symptoms in African American and white women in primary care.
OBJECTIVE
Depressive symptoms are frequently seen among female patients in primary care. The majority of screening instruments are cumbersome for a busy clinic.


METHODS
The effectiveness of a 2-item depression screening questionnaire was compared to the mental health section of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). A total of 127 consecutive patients who presented for primary care service agreed to participate and completed the questionnaire.


RESULTS
Of the final sample, 65.4% were African American and 44.9% of all women reported having depressive symptoms, with no significant difference in the prevalence of reported depressive symptoms between African American and white women (chi2 = 1.97, p = .16). The women reporting depressive symptoms were more likely to be in the lower-income group (chi2 = 9.02, p = .01); however, in stratified analysis this was only significant for the African American women (chi2 = 8.69, p = .01). Analysis of variance demonstrated that the women with depressive symptoms were more likely to score low on the mental health subscales of the SF-36 when adjusted for income (F = 58.32, P < .0001). Within race groups, the mean Mental Health Index scores were higher among African American women (t = -6.45, P <.0001) and White women (t = -3.59, P = .002) who reported depressive symptoms than among those who did not report depressive symptoms. The sensitivity and specificity of the 2-item depression symptom questions compared to the overall SF-36 mental health score were 70% and 77%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
A simple 2-item questionnaire can be used to identify depressive symptoms in white and African American women in a primary care clinic.
Department of Community Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal St, TW-19, New Orleans LA 70112, USA. jmagnus@tulane.edu
Jeanette H
JH
Magnus
Arti
A
Shankar
Danielle L
DL
Broussard
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008145:Louisiana / Q000453:epidemiology; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D009017:Morbidity; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D044465:White People; D016387:Women's Health