Citation

Galeoto G, Sansoni J, Scuccimarri M, Bruni V, De Santis R, Colucci M, Valente D, Tofani M. Depress. Res. Treat. 2018; 2018: e1797536.

Affiliation

Department of Neurosciences and Neurorehabilitation, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, Via della Torre di Palidoro, Palidoro, 00054 Rome, Italy.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Hindawi Publishing)

DOI

10.1155/2018/1797536

PMID

29686898

PMCID

PMC5852888

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is an evaluation tool to diagnose older adult's depression. This questionnaire was defined by Yesavage and Brink in 1982; it was designed expressly for the older person and defines his/her degree of satisfaction, quality of life, and feelings. The objective of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Italian translation of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-IT).

METHODS: The Italian version of the Geriatric Depression Scale was administered to 119 people (79 people with a depression diagnosis and 40 healthy ones). We examined the following psychometric characteristics: internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, and construct validity (factor structure).

RESULTS: Cronbach's Alpha for the GDS-IT administered to the depressed sample was 0.84. Test-retest reliability was 0.91 and the concurrent validity was 0.83. The factorial analysis showed a structure of 5 factors, and the scale cut-off is between 10 and 11.

CONCLUSION: The GDS-IT proved to be a reliable and valid questionnaire for the evaluation of depression in an Italian population. In the present study, the GDS-IT showed good psychometric properties. Health professionals now have an assessment tool for the evaluation of depression symptoms in the Italian population.

Language: en