title: Demographic characteristics do not decrease the utility of depressive symptoms assessments: examining the practical impact of item bias in four heterogeneous samples of older adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies have identified differential item function (DIF) in depressive symptoms measures, but the impact of DIF has been rarely reported. Given the critical importance of depressive symptoms assessment among older adults, we examined whether DIF due to demographic characteristics resulted in salient score changes in commonly used measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four longitudinal studies of cognitive aging provided a sample size of 3754 older adults and included individuals both with and without a clinical diagnosis of major depression. Each study administered at least one of the following measures: the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (20-item ordinal response or 10-item dichotomous response versions), the Geriatric Depression Scale, and the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale. Hybrid logistic regression-item response theory methods were used to examine the presence and impact of DIF due to age, sex, race/ethnicity, and years of education on the depressive symptoms items.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although statistically significant DIF due to demographic factors was present on several items, its cumulative impact on depressive symptoms scores was practically negligible.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings support substantive meaningfulness of previously reported demographic differences in depressive symptoms among older adults, showing that these individual differences were unlikely to have resulted from item bias attributable to demographic characteristics we examined.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Natalia O
authors.initials: NO
authors.lastname: Dmitrieva
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fyffe
authors.forename: Shubhabrata
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mukherjee
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fieo
authors.forename: Laura B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Zahodne
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.forename: Guy G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.forename: Jennifer J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Manly
authors.forename: Heather R
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Romero
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mungas
authors.forename: Laura E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Gibbons
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015982:Bias; D003710:Demography; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards*
keywords: CES-D; GDS; MADRS; depressive symptoms; differential item function; item bias
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