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Psychometric evaluation of a 6‐item C hinese version of the H amilton D epression R ating S cale: Mokken scaling and item analysis
Author(s) -
Lee ChinPang,
Liu ChiaYih,
Hung ChingI
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
asia‐pacific psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1758-5872
pISSN - 1758-5864
DOI - 10.1111/appy.12287
Subject(s) - psychology , predictive value , medicine
Background It is unclear whether the 6‐item Melancholia subscale of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM‐D 6 ) has better psychometric properties than the parental 17‐item version (HAM‐D 17 ) in the Chinese populations. Methods The study was to check the Chinese HAM‐D 17 and HAM‐D 6 for reliability and validity with Mokken scale analysis and item analysis. We reanalyzed a clinical sample of adult psychiatric outpatients (N = 214; age, mean (SD) = 38.3 (10.5) years; 63.1% female) in Taiwan. Results Our Mokken scale analysis showed that the HAM‐D 6 was a moderate unidimensional scale (H s = 0.44) while the HAM‐D 17 was not (H s = 0.26). The 5 items of the HAM‐D 6 had strong invariant item ordering (H T = 0.58). The HAM‐D 17 and HAM‐D 6 had comparable reliability (α = 0.79) and validity ( r = 0.91), and the HAM‐D 6 was more homogenous than the HAM‐D 17 . To predict depression in remission (HAM‐D 17 ≤ 7), the best cutoff of the HAM‐D 6 was 4 (specificity, 87.5%; sensitivity, 100%; positive predictive value, 56.0%; negative predictive value, 100%). Discussion The Chinese HAM‐D 6 was a reliable, valid, and unidimensional scale of depression.