Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of Inventory for Depressive Symptomatology (IDS): Preliminary findings

Abstract

The aim of this study was to provide psychometric properties of the validity and reliability of the 30-item Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology as both a self-report (IDS-SR(30)) and as a clinician rating scale (IDS-C(30)) in a group of Chinese depressed outpatients. The Chinese version of IDS-C(30), IDS-SR(30), HRSD(17), BDI(13), SDS and ATQ were completed for 64 Chinese outpatients with major depressive disorder. The Cronbach's alphas for IDS-C(30) and IDS-SR(30) were 0.799 and 0.805, respectively. The coefficients test-retest reliability for the IDS-C(30) was 0.824 and for the IDSR-SR(30) was 0.718. The Pearson correlation coefficients between the IDS-C(30) and IDS-SR(30), and the other symptom measures (HRSD(17), BDI(13), and SDS) were high (from 0.738 to 0.882). The intra-class correlation coefficient showed the strength of agreement between the IDS-C(30) and IDS-SR(30), and the other symptom measures was found to be adequate (0.634-0.780). The Kappa coefficients of the severity of IDS-C(30) to HRSD(17), IDS-SR(30) were 0.50 and 0.40, respectively. This pilot study finding showed reasonable validity and reliability for the Chinese version of IDS(30) with highly acceptable psychometric properties. The inventory is suitable for assessing the severity of Chinese depressed patients, but this needs to be confirmed using a larger sample. Further studies should be done to demonstrate sensitivity of the scales to change of depression.