title: Measuring carers' knowledge of depression in aged care settings: the Knowledge of Late Life Depression Scale-Revised.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Aged care staff is increasingly relied upon to assist with the recognition and treatment of depression in older care recipients. However, there exist few reliable and comprehensive measures that assess aged care staffs' knowledge about late life depression. The Knowledge of Late-Life Depression Scale is one such scale. In this study we modified this measure in an attempt to improve its psychometric properties so that it can be used with confidence in research and practise. Our modifications to the original measure resulted in the Knowledge of Late-Life Depression Scale-Revised.
  
  
  METHODS
  Aged care staff (N=149) from 20 low level care facilities and community care facilities in Melbourne, Australia, completed the Knowledge of Late-Life Depression Scale-Revised.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and reliability analysis, the Knowledge of Late-Life Depression Scale-Revised was found to demonstrate three robust and internally consistent factors. These factors were: symptoms of depression, facts about depression, and myths of depression. The revised measure was found to yield superior psychometric properties compared to the original measure.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Replication studies are required, especially with other aged carer samples to ensure that the factor structure and internal consistency of the measure are supported across different aged care contexts in Australia and elsewhere.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Knowledge of Late-Life Depression-Revised is a measure that can be used by researchers and agencies to assess the knowledge of depression among professional care staff. The measure is expected to be especially useful as an assessment tool for training and educational purposes.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. gery.karantzas@deakin.edu.au
authors.forename: Gery C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Karantzas
authors.forename: Tanya E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Davison
authors.forename: Marita P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: McCabe
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mellor
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Beaton
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D017028:Caregivers / Q000193:education*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009735:Nursing Homes; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires