O2-3.5 The short form health survey as an instrument for the screening of depressive symptoms in the elderly population

Abstract

<h3>Introduction</h3> There is a large volume of scientific works concerning the utility of the 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) and its mental health component (MCS-12) for diagnosing depression and anxiety disorders in samples of a general population. Because of the existence of a great number of studies using SF-12 data, it is convenient to estimate depressive symptoms from measurements of MCS-12 in more susceptible populations <i>such as the elderly</i>. In this paper we studied the validity of this scale as a screening measure of severe depressive symptoms in epidemiological research. <h3>Objectives</h3> To elect a cut-off point in the MCS-12 scale leading to proper discrimination of severe cases of depressive symptoms as measured by the GDS scale, with good sensibility and specificity. <h3>Methods</h3> Data come from part of the SABE study—a longitudinal research in the city of São Paulo, 2000/2006/2010. N=1155 people aged 65 and plus were interviewed in the 2006 round. ROC analysis was used to select a cut-off point in the MCS-12. <h3>Results</h3> 905 persons reported answers to both scales. General prevalence of severe depression was 2.6% (1.6 males, 3.2 females). A cut-off point of 43 in MCS-12 leaded to 88% area under ROC curve. Accuracy was 89.3 (86.5 females, 93.5 males), sensibility 0.73 (0.72 females, 0.75 males) and specificity 0.90 (0.87 females, 0.94 males). <h3>Conclusions</h3> The validation parameters found in this research indicate that the MCS-12 is a valid measure of depressive symptoms in epidemiologic studies of elders, and a screening tool for depression in clinical practice.