A Reliability and Validity Study of Geriatric Depression Scale.
- Author:
In Kwa JUNG
1
;
Dong Il KWAK
;
Dong Kyun SHIN
;
Min Soo LEE
;
Hyeon Soo LEE
;
Jin Young KIM
Author Information
1. Department of Neuropsychiatry, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Geriatric Depression Scale(GDS);
Geriatric depression;
Reliability;
Validity;
Cultural difference
- MeSH:
Aged;
Depression*;
Discrimination (Psychology);
Humans;
Reproducibility of Results*
- From:Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association
1997;36(1):103-112
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
OBJECTS: The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of Geriatric Depression Scale(GDS). METHODS: GDS, BDI, SDS, MMPI-D, K-CES-D were administered to 81 depressed elderlies and 75 nondepressed elderlies. Those who obtained the 'definite impairment' score in MMSE-K were excluded in the final analyses. RESULTS: The values of Cronbach's alpha and test-retest correlation coefficient were 0.88 and 0.66(p< .001) respectively, The GDS was highly correlated with BDI(r= .72), SDS(r= .78), K-CES-D(r= .75), and MMPI-D(r= .65). The result of the factor analysis showed that GDS had seven factors. They could be labeled as core depressive feature(factor 1), loss of interest/pleasure(factor 2), feeling of unhappiness(factor 3), agitation(factor 4), cognitive inefficiency (factor 5), social withdrawal tendency(factor 6), and lack of motivation(factor 7), which represent important characteristics (emotional, cognitive, and behavioral aspects) of depression in the elderly. The total percent of variance of 7 factors was 53.4%. finally, the result of discrimination analysis showed that the hit ratio of GDS was 64%. CONCLUSION: Although GDS had the reasonable reliability and validity, it seemed to have some limitations in relation to absolute discrimination power. It is necessary to investigate the cultural differences in geriatric depressive symptoms and to develope a new depression scale for elderly people with consideration of the cultural differences.
