A short Chinese version of center for epidemiologic studies depression scale

Objective To develop a short Chinese version of the center for epidemiological studies depression scale(CES-D). Method A stratified random nationwide sample with 30801 normal people and a mentally ill sample with 415 patients were tested. Items in the short version were chosen according to both the result of independent t-test in current study and the result of reliance and validity. Cut-off scores were offered to check up depressions. Result The internal consistency reliability of the 9-item Chinese version CES-D ranged from 0.85 to 0.88.The test-retest reliability was 0.49(P<0.001). All item-total correlations were higher than 0.5.The correlation between sumscores of the original scale and sumscores of the Chinese short version ranged from 0.94 to 0.96(P<0.001) in all the samples.The sum scores of initial diagnosis depression sample were significantly higher than that of treated depression sample and common sample.A two-dimension structure was testified.The cut-off scores of the short version were 10 and 17. Conclusion The 9-item Chinese version of CES-D can be used in various samples with reliable and valid effect. Key words: Epidemiological studies depression scale; Chinese short version; Reliability; Validity