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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Depression in older people in the general hospital
— a systematic review of screening instruments | | Author(s) | Michael Dennis, Adil Kadri, John Coffey |
| Journal title | Age and Ageing, vol 41, no 2, March 2012 |
| Pages | pp 148-154 |
| Source | http://ageing.oxfordjournals.org/ http://www.bgs.org.uk/ |
| Keywords | Depression ; General hospitals ; In-patients ; Screening ; Instruments ; Evaluation. |
| Annotation | Depression is common among older in-patients in general hospitals, and is associated with poor outcomes, increased length of stay and compromised care. The recognition and diagnosis of depression is therefore a key first step in managing the condition, and this may be facilitated by the use of an appropriate screening instrument. The aim of this study was to review all relevant literature on rating scales used to detect depression in older people in general hospitals so as to identify the most appropriate tool and cut-off score with optimal performance. An electronic search was conducted applying key search terms. Only 14 studies satisfied the inclusion criteria and only one instrument - the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) - was found to have been studied to an adequate extent in older people in the acute general hospital setting. Best performance for the GDS was for a cut-off of 5/6 for the GDS-15 and 10/11 for the GDS-30. The authors conclude that further research is required before recommending the use of brief depression screening instruments in the acute hospital setting. Though a number of tools show promise, the GDS would appear the most validated instrument currently in use. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-120508001 A |
| Classmark | ENR: LD3: LF7: 3V: YW4: 4C |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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