Abstract

GOMEZ-ANGULO, CARINE  and  CAMPO-ARIAS, ADALBERTO. Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15 and GDS-5): A study of the internal consistency and factor structure. Univ. Psychol. [online]. 2011, vol.10, n.3, pp.735-743. ISSN 1657-9267.

The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), 5 and 15-items version, are useful for identify depressive symptoms among elder people. However, psychometric properties of a version of five items has not explored among colombian elders. The aim of this paper was to study the internal consistency, the factor structure and the construct reliability of the GDS-15 and GDS-5. A total of 105 colombian people over 65 year-old participated in this investigation. The internal consistency, the construct reliability and the exploratory factor analysis were computed. The GDS-15 showed internal consistency of 0.78, the construct reliability of 0.87 and two-dimensional structure. The GDS-5 exhibited internal consistency of 0.73, construct reliability of 0.83 and one-dimensional structure. In conclusion the GDS-5 shows better psychometric properties than the GDS-15. However, it is recommended to develop the design a new and more reliability scale.

Keywords : GDS-15; GDS-5; depressive disorders; aged people; validation studies; Quantitative research; psychometry; reliability of psychological test; factor analysis.

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