Screening for Depression Among Older Adults Referred to Home Care Services: A Single-Item Depression Screener Versus the Geriatric Depression Scale

Abstract

Older adults requiring home care service have a high risk of depression. Instruments for detecting depression among older adults, however, are often too long and detailed for easy administration by nontrained staff in large service-based settings.This study examined the measurement properties (test—retest reliability, concurrent validity, and cross-modality correspondence) of a single-item screener for depressive symptoms among older adults receiving home care services. Reliability was assessed ( n = 65) by administering the single-item depression screener to the same participants on two occasions 7 days apart. Validity was assessed ( n = 191) by comparing depressed participants from the single-item depression screener versus Geriatric Depression Scale (criterion measure). Responses to the single-item depression screener administered by telephone and face-to-face interview were also compared. Findings suggest that the single-item depression screener has fair levels of reliability, validity, and cross-modality correspondence and could be used among home care recipients as a screening tool, provided that depression status is confirmed via in-depth questionnaires, interviews, or a clinical diagnosis.