Validity of the Geriatric Depression Scale for Patients Seen at General Outpatient Clinics

Abstract

Introduction: Geriatric depression is under-diagnosed and often mistaken for other diseases that are common in the elderly. Its detection, using a screening scale translated into the local language, is relevant to the care provided at general outpatient clinics.

Objective: To study the validity of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) in general outpatient clinics.

Methods: The GDS was first translated into Portuguese and compared with the diagnosis of depression achieved by the SCID-CV (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV clinician version axis disturbances) performed by a psychiatrist who was blind to the GDS results. Data were analyzed using the ROC curve to determine the cut-off point.

Results: A total of 484 patients were evaluated, 210 of whom were classified as depressive and 274 as non-depressive. The ROC curve determined the cut-off point at 12, with 87% sensitivity and 73% specificity. In the logistic regression, no sociodemographic variable presented an association with depression.

Conclusions: The GDS presented acceptable performance coefficients as a screening scale for depression among the elderly in general outpatient clinics. Results also suggest that the cut-off point may vary across cultures.

Key Words:

• Depression
• rating scale
• old age