1, 2) Additionally, elderly patients need differentiated diagnosis and treatment strategies for depressive disorder. Keywords: Depression in Old Age Scale (DIA-S) Korean Elderly Depressive disorder Validation.ĭepressive disorders affect elderly people with cognitive impairments and disability, and worsen the outcomes of many medical illnesses. The present findings suggest that the K-DIA-S has good psychometric properties and is a valid and reliable tool for assessing depressive symptoms in elderly populations and medically ill patients. For “any depressive disorder”, the AUC (standard error) for the K-DIA-S was 0.896 (0.015), which was significantly larger than that for the PHQ-9 ( p = 0.033). The cut-off point of the K-DIA-S that can be recommended for screening depressive symptoms was a score of 4. The K-DIA-S showed good internal consistency and strong correlations with the SGDS ( r = 0.853), PHQ-9 ( r = 0.739), and MADRS ( r = 0.772). Areas under the curves (AUCs) for the K-DIA-S, SGDS, and PHQ-9 were compared statistically. Reliability and validity tests, an optimal cutoff point estimate, and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis were performed to investigate the diagnostic validity of the K-DIA-S. Other measures included the 15-item short form of the Geriatric Depression Scale (SGDS), the 9-item depression module of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and the Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). MethodsĪ total of 385 elderly outpatients completed the K-DIA-S and underwent the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview to diagnose depressive disorders. The primary aims of this study were to describe the validation of the Korean version of the DIA-S (K-DIA-S) and to compare its validity with that of other depression screening questionnaires used in elderly outpatients in medical settings. The Depression in Old Age Scale (DIA-S) is a new screening tool for assessing depression in the elderly.