Citation

Nandy K, Rush AJ, Carmody T, Kennard BD, Emslie GJ, Slater H, Mayes TL, DeFilippis M, Garza C, Storch EA, Wakefield SM, Trivedi MH. J. Clin. Psychiatry 2023; 85(1): 23m14861.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Physicians Postgraduate Press)

DOI

10.4088/JCP.23m14861

PMID

38127311

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate psychometrically and provide crosswalks between 3 self-report measures of depressive symptomatology in youth in psychiatric care settings. Ratings included the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-A), a widely used 9-item self-report; the 16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self-Report (QIDS-SR(16)); and the 5-item Very Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self-Report (VQIDS-SR(5)), a recent effort to create a bridge from the QIDS-SR(16) to clinical practice.

METHODS: Data from the Texas Youth Depression and Suicide Research Network Registry (August 26, 2020-May 11, 2022) were included in this work. At first visit, 795 depressed or suicidal adolescent (12-20 years of age) psychiatric outpatients completed the PHQ-A, QIDS-SR(16), and VQIDS-SR(5). Classical test theory and item-response theory (IRT) analyses were conducted. Crosswalks among total scales were created. Sensitivity to change over 1-month follow-up was assessed for all 3 scales (n = 682).

RESULTS: Cronbach alphas were 0.86 (PHQ-A), 0.80 (QIDS-SR(16)), and 0.76 (VQIDS-SR(5)). Item total correlations were 0.49-0.72, 0.29-0.64, and 0.43-0.61, respectively. All 3 scales were unidimensional and sensitive to change over a 1-month period. IRT analyses revealed satisfactory item performance. Modest but significant associations were found between baseline to 1-month changes in PHQ-A and VQIDS-SR(5) total scores (r = 0.50, P < .0001) and between PHQ-A and QIDS-SR(16) total scores (r = 0.56; P < .0001). Categorical thresholds of severity (ie, mild, moderate, severe, and very severe) were comparable between PHQ-A and QIDS-SR(16).

CONCLUSIONS: The PHQ-A, QIDS-SR(16), and VQIDS-SR(5) are unidimensional, psychometrically acceptable self-reports of depressive prevalence or severity in adolescents and young adults in this sample. Total scale scores on any measure can be converted reliably to those on any other.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescent; Humans; Young Adult; *Depression/diagnosis/epidemiology; *Suicide; Outpatients; Self Report; Texas/epidemiology