title: An evidence-based scale for the antecedents of depressive symptoms in Australian adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop and test a self-reported scale designed to measure the antecedents of depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants of the Sustainable Mastery of Innovative Lifelong Exercise (SMILE) Tai Chi program were invited to complete the scale for antecedents of depressive symptoms. The scale included questions regarding events/factors the participants have experienced over the past three months and preceded their depressive symptoms. The reliability of the questions was assessed using the Cronbach's alpha. Principal components analysis was used to examine if there were domains of interest across the scale questions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 126 participants completed the scale. The scale had a good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.82). Principal components analysis identified three components (life events, psychosocial problems, and physical/health problems) in the scale and the components detected the root categories of depression in more than 56% of the cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This simple self-administered scale has proven to provide a reliable measure for the antecedent factors of depression in the SMILE Tai Chi cohort; further validation of the scale in different settings is encouraged.
authors: Research Fellow, School of Health Sciences, Wuhan Sport University, China; School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, QLD, Australia xin.liu@uqconnect.edu.au.
authors: Xin
authors: X
authors: Liu
authors: PhD Candidate, Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
authors: Luis
authors: L
authors: Furuya-Kanamori
authors: Associate Professor, Queensland Center for Mental Health Research, Brisbane, QLD, and; Metro South Addiction and Mental Health Service, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors: Dan
authors: D
authors: Siskind
authors: Professor, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Australia; Metro South Addiction and Mental Health Services, Brisbane, QLD, and; Centre for Neuroscience, Recovery and Mental Health, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Crompton
authors: Professor, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, QLD, Australia.
authors: Gail M
authors: GM
authors: Williams
authors: Associate Professor, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, QLD, and; Mater Health Services, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors: Karam
authors: K
authors: Kostner
authors: Professor, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors: Luis
authors: L
authors: Vitetta
authors: Associate Professor, Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
authors: Suhail A
authors: SA
authors: Doi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report
keywords: antecedents; depression; depressive symptoms; scale; self-administered; self-assessment