Differential Item Functioning in the Cambridge Mental Disorders in the Elderly (CAMDEX) Depression Scale Across Middle Age and Late Life

A long-standing and critical problem in the study of aging and depression is the comparability of measurement across age groups. While psychological measures of depression typically show increased incidence of symptoms with increasing age, rates of depression diagnosis do not show the same age trend...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological assessment 2015-12, Vol.27 (4), p.1219-1233
Main Authors: Estabrook, Ryne, Sadler, Michael E., McGue, Matt
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age Differences
Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Aging - psychology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Depression - diagnosis
Depression - psychology
Differential Item Functioning
Discriminant analysis
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Female
Geriatric Assessment
Health Surveys
Human
Humans
Item Response Theory
Major Depression
Male
Measurement Invariance
Mental depression
Mental Disorders
Middle Aged
Models, Statistical
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales - statistics & numerical data
Quantitative psychology
Reproducibility of Results
Symptoms
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Summary:A long-standing and critical problem in the study of aging and depression is the comparability of measurement across age groups. While psychological measures of depression typically show increased incidence of symptoms with increasing age, rates of depression diagnosis do not show the same age trend. This analysis presents tests of differential item functioning on the depression section of the CAMDEX interview schedule, using factor analysis-derived affective and somatic subscales (McGue & Christensen, 1997). Results for the affective subscale show significant differences in item functioning in the majority of the affective items as a function of age (items "Happy Life," "Lonely," "Nervous" "Worthless," and "Future": χ62 = [30.193, 255.971] across items, all p < .0001). Analyses for the somatic subscale show differential item functioning is limited to a single item relating to coping (χ62 = 180.754, p < .0001). These results indicate that differences in depression symptoms across age groups are not entirely consistent with a unidimensional depression trait, and that the measurement structure of depression varies over the life span.
ISSN:1040-3590
1939-134X
DOI:10.1037/pas0000114