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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| The Geriatric Depression Scale: a content analysis of respondent comments | | Author(s) | Lucy Rose Fischer, Sharon J Rolnick, Jody Jackson |
| Journal title | Journal of Mental Health and Aging, vol 2, no 2, Summer/Fall 1996 |
| Pages | pp 125-135 |
| Keywords | Depression ; Screening ; Attitude ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was administered as a screening instrument to older members of a large health maintenance organisation (HMO) in the United States (US), as the first part of a 5-year study. More than 20% of the GDS forms that were returned included marginal comments and notations. A content analysis of respondent comments was conducted to examine how older people interpret the GDS and which items seemed to be the most problematic. About 40% of the total comments indicated that the yes-no format is too restrictive for some or many of the questions. Many respondents changed emotion-laden words and intensity modifiers, and also made a distinction between personal style and depressive mood. In addition, many of the comments were attempts to fill in the context, i.e., how their mood is affected by age, health, and personal relationships. The authors conclude that it is possible that certain personality profiles or social conditions influence the likelihood of detecting, overdetecting or missing symptoms of depression. (AKM). |
| Accession Number | CPA-980515214 A |
| Classmark | ENR: 3V: DP: 7T |
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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