A very short visual analog form of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) for the idiographic measurement of depression.
BACKGROUND
The experience sampling method, also referred to as ecological momentary assessment (ESM-EMA) has recently gained popularity in the study of depression. However, no psychometrically sound multidimensional depression questionnaires specifically designed for the ESM-EMA context are currently available.


OBJECTIVE
The main objective of the present study was to develop and validate a very short visual analog scale of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scales (CES-D-VAS-VS) specifically designed for the ESM-EMA context. To this end, the full French version of the CES-D was adapted for the ESM-EMA context. From this full-length adapted version a very short version was then extracted from this longer instrument and validated.


METHODS
A sample comprising 163 patients with a major depressive episode (MDE) and 306 participants without mental disorders was involved in this study.


RESULTS
The obtained results provided support for the factor validity, strong measurement invariance (invariance of the loadings and intercepts of the measurement model) across sex and clinical status groups, reliability and convergent validity of the CES-D-VAS-VS. This instrument comprises 4 items measuring positive affect, depressive affect, somatic complaints and disturbed interpersonal relationships.


CONCLUSIONS
The present results provide preliminary evidence regarding the construct validity of the CES-D-VAS-VS among patients and community adults sample but also underline the need to rely on latent variables methods in the use of this instrument to account for the differential levels of measurement errors (uniquenessess) that were observed across groups.
Moullec
Grégory
G
University of Montpellier I, EA 4206 "Addictive, Performance and Health Behaviors", Montpellier, France.
Maïano
Christophe
C
Morin
Alexandre J S
AJ
Monthuy-Blanc
Johana
J
Rosello
Lisa
L
Ninot
Grégory
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult