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BioPsychoSocial Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet Test: Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) Year: 1977 Domain: Psychological Assessment Tool category: Mental Health Variations/Translations: The scale has also been translated in Chinese and Spanish. A ten item shortened version of the CES-D for elderly people is also available. Assessment Setting: Used in large community surveys, cross-cultural studies and clinical settings as a screening test to identify depression. Method of Delivery: Normally self-administered but may also be used in an interview. Description of Test: The Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) is a 20-item self-report questionnaire developed to identify depression symptoms or psychologic distress the general population. General population being defined as non-psychiatric persons over the age of 18. It was designed to gauge the major components of depression including depressed mood, feelings of guilt and worthlessness, feelings of helplessness ad worthlessness, psychomotor retardation, loss of appetite, and sleep disorders. It is advised against use for a depression diagnosis because it only assesses symptoms presenting in the past week and does not assess the complete range of depressive symptoms. It can be used as an indicator of symptoms. It is also an important tool for recognizing groups at-risk for depression as well as the links between behavior and depressive symptoms. It has been used significantly in the recognition of depressive symptoms in the general population. Research supports the use of the scale in assessment studies and as a screening tool.
Scoring/Interpretation: Participants answer questions about the regularity and length of the depressive moods, thoughts or feelings in the past week. Each question uses a 0-to-3 response scale; except for the four positive questions. A 0 response means “rarely or none of the time,” 1 means “some or a little of the time” and 4 means “most or all of the time.” Questions 4,8,12 and 16 are worded positively and their scores are reversed by subtracting the score from 3. Question scores are then summed to provide an overall score ranging from 0 to 60. A higher score indicates greater depression. Scores of 16 or more are commonly taken as indicative of depression. Time to Administer: 10 minutes Availability: Can be accessed online. Software: N/A Website: http://www.counsellingresource.com/quizzes/cesd/index.html Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative. Validity: Validity was established by patterns of correlations with other self-report measures, by correlations with clinical ratings of depression, and by relationships with other variables which support its construct validity. These studies found CES-D to have correlations ranging from the .50s to .80s with the Hamilton rating scale, .30s to .80s with the Raskin rating scale, .40s to .50s with the Lubin Depression Adjective Checklist, .60s and .20s, respectively, with the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale’s Negative Affect and Positive Affect Scales, .50s with the Langner scale, and .43 with the Cantril life satisfaction ladder. With the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) as criterion, the weighted sensitivity of the CES-D was 100%; specificity 88%; and positive predictive value 13.2%. The depressive symptom scale items are domains previously used in other validated, longer scales. Reliability: Alpha coefficients of 0.85 for general population samples and of 0.90 for a patient sample were reported. The concentration of the CES-D on recent symptoms may reduce test-retest reliability. References: Radloff, L.
(1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research
in the general Anderson, E. & Malmgren, J. (1994). Screening for depression in well older adults: evaluation of a short form of the CES-D (Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale). American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 10 (2), 77-84 Locke, B., & Putnam, P. (2009). Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based child abuse prevention. Retrieved on February 9, 2010 from http://www.friendsnrc.org/download/outcomeresources/toolkit/annot/cesd.pdf Comments: N/A |