Test of item-response bias in the CES-D scale: experience from the New Haven EPESE Study

We present results of item-response bias analyses of the exogenous variables age, gender, and race for all items from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale using data ( N = 2340) from the New Haven component of the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elde...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical epidemiology 2000-03, Vol.53 (3), p.285-289
Main Authors: Cole, Stephen R., Kawachi, Ichiro, Maller, Susan J., Berkman, Lisa F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
African Americans
Age Distribution
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Analysis of Variance
Bias
Biological and medical sciences
CES-D
Connecticut - epidemiology
Depression
Depression - diagnosis
Depression - epidemiology
Depressive symptoms
Epidemiologic Methods
Epidemiology
European Continental Ancestry Group
Female
General aspects
Humans
Item-response bias
Male
Medical sciences
Methodology
Mood disorders
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychometrics
Psychometrics - methods
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Reproducibility of Results
Sensitivity and Specificity
Sex Distribution
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:We present results of item-response bias analyses of the exogenous variables age, gender, and race for all items from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale using data ( N = 2340) from the New Haven component of the Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly (EPESE). The proportional odds of blacks responding higher on the CES-D items “people are unfriendly” and “people dislike me” were 2.29 (95% confidence interval: 1.74, 3.02) and 2.96 (95% confidence interval: 2.15, 4.07) times that of whites matched on overall depressive symptoms, respectively. In addition, the proportional odds of women responding higher on the CES-D item “crying spells” were 2.14 (95% confidence interval: 1.60, 2.82) times that of men matched on overall depressive symptoms. Our data indicate the CES-D would have greater validity among this diverse group of older men and women after removal of the crying item and two interpersonal items.
ISSN:0895-4356
1878-5921
DOI:10.1016/S0895-4356(99)00151-1