Using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale to Assess Depression in Women With HIV and Women at Risk for HIV: Are Somatic Items Invariant?

The prevalence of depression among women living with HIV/AIDS is elevated, compared with women in the general population and men diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Although symptoms of HIV may overlap with somatic symptoms of depression, little research has explored how well screening tools accurately assess...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological assessment 2018-01, Vol.30 (1), p.97-105
Main Authors: Adams, Leah M., Wilson, Tracey E., Merenstein, Daniel, Milam, Joel, Cohen, Jennifer, Golub, Elizabeth T., Adedimeji, Adebola, Cook, Judith A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AIDS
Diagnosis
Epidemiology
Female
HIV
Human
Major Depression
Measurement Invariance
Mental depression
Risk Factors
Symptoms
Test Construction
Women
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Summary:The prevalence of depression among women living with HIV/AIDS is elevated, compared with women in the general population and men diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Although symptoms of HIV may overlap with somatic symptoms of depression, little research has explored how well screening tools accurately assess depression rather than symptoms of HIV/AIDS among women. The present study examined the utility of a widely used tool for assessing depression symptoms among women living with HIV/AIDS. Data are from the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS), a multisite, longitudinal cohort study of women living with HIV/AIDS (n = 1,329) and seronegative women (n = 541) matched on key risk factors for HIV/AIDS. Confirmatory factor analysis-based measurement invariance tests of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) were conducted to determine whether women with HIV and those without HIV responded to the scale similarly. Results supported measurement invariance of CES-D scores. Findings suggest that the CES-D can be used to assess for burden of depression symptoms among women diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Public Significance Statement This study suggests that, despite overlap in some symptoms of HIV and some symptoms of depression, scores on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) reflect symptoms of depression equally well for women who are HIV-positive and for women who are HIV-negative. This suggests that clinicians and researchers can meaningfully compare CES-D scores between women in these 2 groups.
ISSN:1040-3590
1939-134X
DOI:10.1037/pas0000456