title: Ability of nurses to identify depression in primary care, secondary care and nursing homes--a meta-analysis of routine clinical accuracy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To clarify the ability of nurses and nursing assistants working in primary care, secondary care and nursing homes to identify depressed individuals using their clinical skills using meta-analysis of published studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature search, appraisal and meta-analysis. We located 22 studies reporting on the detection of depression, 4 involving primary care or community nurses; 7 involving hospital nurses and 11 from nursing homes.17 of 22 studies had specificity data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Across all 22 studies involving 7061 individuals, and a prevalence of 28.1% (95% CI=22.6-33.9%), practice and community nurses correctly identified 26.3% (95% CI=16.2-37.8%) of people with depression. They also correctly identified 94.8% (95% CI=91.3-97.4%) of the non-depressed. Nurses working in hospital settings correctly identified 43.1% (95% CI=31.9-54.8%) of people with depression and 79.6% (95% CI=71.5-86.7%) of the non-depressed. Those working in nursing homes correctly identified 45.8% (95% CI=38.1-53.6%) of people with depression and 80.0% (95% CI=68.6-88.7%) of the non-depressed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nurses have considerable difficulty accurately identifying depression but are probably at least as accurate as medical staff.
authors.affiliation: Liaison Psychiatry, Leicester General Hospital, Leicester LE5 4PW, United Kingdom. ajm80@le.ac.uk
authors.forename: Alex J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Venkatraghavan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kakkadasam
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis; D009735:Nursing Homes; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care