Psychometric properties of the Geriatric Depression Scale (Kannada version): A community-based study

Background: Mental disorders have got high prevalence and low priority in most of the countries worldwide, of which depression among elderly population being the most common treatable medical condition. In developing countries such as India, there is a scarcity of adequately trained mental health professionals. In this context, validated Kannada version of the the Geriatric Depression Scale (KGDS)-15 is considered an alternative to screen the depression among the elderly. Objectives: The objectives of this study are to assess the psychometric properties of KGDS-15 in an urban community. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the urban field practice area of medical college, Bengaluru for a period of 6 months after the Institutional Ethics Committee clearance. House-to-house survey was done to enumerate the total number of the elderly; of 347 elderly, 100 elderly were selected by probability proportion to population size technique and linguistically validated KGDS-15 was applied to screen for depression, and psychiatrist assessed the depression status by clinical evaluation using the Structure Clinical Interview for DSM-IV and dementia status using the Mini-Mental Status Examination. Results: The KGDS-15 had 100% sensitivity and 88.8% specificity. The area under curve values for KGDS-15 was 0.98 (P < 0.0001), and the optimum cutoff score was >7, with a sensitivity of 1.0 and specificity of 0.95. The Cronbach's alpha is 0.92 and test-retest reliability is 0.99. Conclusions: The KGDS-15 had good psychometric properties and a valid instrument for screening depression among the elderly in the urban community.