title: Performance of the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale for caregiving research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CESD) scale has been useful in a broad spectrum of health research on patient and population outcomes. A brief version is used when depressive symptoms are not the primary focus. Rasch (item response) analysis previously demonstrated potential problems with positively worded items. We tested the 10-item CESD (CESD-10) scale and considered an 8-item version with both psychometric and Rasch analyses.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a special sample of 2067 caregivers from three existing US databases. We describe item response patterns and internal constancy in addition to Rasch scale results.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were few problems with missing data, and internal consistency was high (alpha = 0.86-0.88) for both CESD versions. Rasch analysis indicated that one of the positive items ("hopeful about future") could be dropped.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We partly confirmed prior work that suggested dropping positive items for the CESD-10. Among caregivers, item-level problems and scaling problems seem minimal. At present, there is not a strong rationale for dropping the CESD-10 positive items: the one poorly performing positive item might be explained by the special caregiver sample.
authors.affiliation: Institute on Development & Disability, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, USA.
authors.forename: Elena M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Andresen
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling & Counseling Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Byers
authors.affiliation: College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Friary
authors.affiliation: Department of Gerontology, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA.
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kosloski
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
authors.forename: Rhonda
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Montgomery
keywords: Psychometrics; caregiving; depression; questionnaires/standards