Model Stability of the 15-Item Geriatric Depression Scale Across Cognitive Impairment and Severe Depression

• Published in: Psychology and aging Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 372 - 379
• Main Authors: Brown, Patrick J, Woods, Carol M, Storandt, Martha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychological Association 01-06-2007
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Ageing; Aging; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Alzheimer Disease - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Bipolar Disorder - diagnosis; Bipolar Disorder - psychology; Cognitive Impairment; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Dementia; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder, Major - psychology; Factor Analysis; Female; Geriatric Assessment; Geriatric psychology; Geriatrics; Human; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Major Depression; Male; Measurement techniques; Medical sciences; Mental depression; Middle Aged; Mood disorders; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data; Personality Assessment - statistics & numerical data; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics - statistics & numerical data; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Rating Scales; Reproducibility of Results; Statistics as Topic; Techniques and methods; Test Validity; Validity; factor analysis; dementia; aging; Geriatric Depression Scale; structural invariance; Human; Mood disorder; Geriatric Depression Scale Yesavage; Nervous system diseases; Senescence; Factor analysis; Cognitive disorder; Depression; Psychometrics; Cerebral disorder; Senile dementia; Central nervous system disease; Degenerative disease; Elderly
• ISSN: 0882-7974; 1939-1498
• DOI: 10.1037/0882-7974.22.2.372

The 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is used in a wide variety of clinical and research settings. The study's purpose was to further establish the validity of the 15-item GDS by exploring the underlying factor structure in a healthy, nondemented sample of older adults and then analyzing whether this factor structure remained stable across a sample of demented individuals and a sample of individuals with a history of depression 6 months after discharge from an inpatient psychiatric setting. A 2-factor model fit the data best in the exploratory analyses. The 2 factors, Life Satisfaction and General Depressive Affect, found in the nondemented sample (
r
= .39) remained stable across cognitive impairment (
r
= .12) but merged into a 1-factor model in the psychiatric sample (
r
= .93). The results indicate that nondepressed older adults with poor life satisfaction may be identified as depressed on screening instruments such as the 15-item GDS.