Applicability, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the Depressive Cognition Scale: A systematic review with meta-analysis/ Aplicabilidade, sensibilidade, especificidade e acurácia do Depressive Cognition Scale: Uma revisão sistemática com metanálise

Abstract

Background: Depression can influence the treatment of diabetes mellitus, because it causes physiological alterations in the neurochemical and hormonal functions, which could cause hyperglycemic effects. Methods: This systematic review with meta-analysis follows the recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook and Prisma. Inclusion/exclusion criteria that had been previously selected for the sample were adopted by using the MEDLINE/PubMed, LILACS/BIREME, SciELO, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library and Scopus databases, through the keywords “depression”, “risk factors” and “diabetes mellitus” in DeCS/MeSH, and “depressive cognition scale”, which were combined using the Boolean operator “AND”. The statistical analysis used the Bioestat 5.0 and Review Manager 5.3 programs. Results: With regard to the results, 26,292 publications were identified; however, after submitting them to the criteria and to the reviewers’ analyses, only 12 studies remained. Sensitivity and specificity were found higher than 78%, which is statistically significant. The test accuracy represented 0.79, thus it confirmed the applicability of the instrument. The combined Odds Ratio value presented a result of 6.3 CI (5.7 – 7.1). This fact shows the great association between diabetes and depression and the importance of the Depressive Cognition Scale in patients with diabetes mellitus. The p-value obtained (<0.0001) seemed to be statistically significant for the analyzed data. Limitations: Scarcity of studies assessing the Depression Cognitive Scale about diabetes mellitus. Conclusions: The Depressive Cognition Scale presents statistically significant sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy. This scale is a reliable and applicable tool for screening and identification of depression risk factors in diabetic patients.