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The Geriatric Depression Scale: does it measure depressive mood, depressive affect, or both?
Author(s) -
Gana Kamel,
Bailly Nathalie,
Broc Guillaume,
Cazauvieilh Christophe,
Boudouda Nedjem Eddine
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.4582
Subject(s) - affect (linguistics) , geriatric depression scale , depression (economics) , mood , depressive mood , psychology , psychiatry , psychometrics , clinical psychology , depressed mood , scale (ratio) , depressive symptoms , major depressive disorder , cognition , communication , economics , macroeconomics , physics , quantum mechanics
Objective Self‐report measures of depression are highly important tools used in research and in various healthcare settings for the diagnosis of different levels of depression. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is the first and the most popular scale used to screen for late‐life depression. It is endorsed by the Royal College of Physicians and the British Geriatric Society (1992). The purpose of the present research was to investigate whether scores on the GDS 15 capture depressive mood (i.e. trait depression), depressive affect (i.e. short‐term depressive state), or both. Methods For this purpose, a trait–state model (stable trait, autoregressive trait, and state model) was applied to GDS 15 scores obtained at four time points over a 6‐year period among a sample of community‐dwelling older persons ( N = 753). This model allows decomposing the GDS 15 scores into three different variance components: stable trait variance, autoregressive trait variance, and state variance. Results Our findings revealed a general pattern of a major proportion of stable trait (69%) and autoregressive trait (22%) variance and a very smaller amount of state variance (9%) in the GDS scores across 6 years. Age and gender (i.e. being female) were shown to be positively linked to more stable trait variance. Conclusions Depression, as assessed with the GDS 15 , should be regarded as a relatively stable and enduring trait construct, reflecting a stable core of a person's depressivity. The negligible amount of state elements in the variation of the GDS 15 scores provides evidence that changing the context will not be enough to cause significant changes in depressive symptoms. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.