Screening capacity of Geriatric Depression Scale with 10 and 5 items

Abstract

Background: The use of the brief versions of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) for depression screening in different health care settings requires the identifica-tion of a cutoff. Objectives: To assess the screening ability of the GDS-10 and GDS-5 for depression using DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for major depressive episode as reference test. Methodology: The sample consisted of 139 older peo-ple. Sensitivity and specificity for different cutoff values were obtained using the Receiver Operating Character-istic curve. The cutoff was selected based on the Youden Index. Results: The optimal cutoff was 1/2 for both versions of the GDS. The GDS-10 showed a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 45.7%, and the GDS-5 showed a sensitivity of 78.3% and a specificity of 85.3%. Conclusion: The GDS-10 proved to be a good screening instrument for depression and its use in routine care is justifiable. The use of GDS-5 for screening depression is not recommended due to its limited screening ability.