Psychiatry Research
Volume 150, Issue 1 , Pages 97-103, 28 February 2007

Rasch analysis of the scoring scheme of the HADS Depression subscale in Chinese stroke patients

  • Wai Kwong Tang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Department of Psychiatry, Shatin Hospital, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China. Tel.: +86 852 2607 6024; fax: +86 852 2667 1255.
    • ,
  • Eric Wong

      Affiliations

    • Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
    • ,
  • Helen F.K. Chiu

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
    • ,
  • Gabor S. Ungvari

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Received 14 April 2005; received in revised form 1 January 2006; accepted 12 January 2006.

Abstract 

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a widely used screening instrument for depression in medically ill patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the optimal scoring scheme, unidimensionality and item fit of the depression subscale of the HADS (HADS-D) in stroke survivors. A research assistant administered the HADS-D to 100 Chinese patients with acute stroke who were consecutively admitted to a general hospital. A psychiatrist, who was blind to the HADS-D scores, administered the SCID-DSM-III-R to all 100 patients and made a DSM-IV diagnosis of depression, which served as the benchmark for judging the performance of the HADS-D in screening for depression. Rasch analysis has shown that the HADS-D was unidimensional; low endorsements for the higher coded alternative response categories were found in the sample. In clinical samples with a low frequency of depression, the scoring categories of the HADS-D may be reduced.

Keywords: Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Depression, Screening, Rasch analysis, Stroke

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PII: S0165-1781(06)00027-8

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2006.01.015

Psychiatry Research
Volume 150, Issue 1 , Pages 97-103, 28 February 2007

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