Brief Self-Rating Scale of Depression and Anxiety: description of the scale’s construction and psychometric properties for persons with diabetes

Introduction: There is no Polish language version of a brief self-rating scale of depression and anxiety with psychometric proprieties assessed following the current standards of methodology. Such as tool is especially needed for persons with diabetes due to the high rate of depressive disorders and anxiety disorders in this population. Aim of study: To construct a brief method of depression and anxiety assessment and elaborate preliminary norms for persons with diabetes. Results: The presented 10-item Likert scale was formulated following the analysis of the essential symptoms listed in the ICD-10 and DSM-IV. There are 5 questions in the subscale of depression and 5 questions in the anxiety subscale. Psychometric proprieties were assessed among 240 persons with diabetes. The scales have high reliability (for depression Cronbach’s a=0.95; and for anxiety Cronbach’s a=0.94). The validity was also high – the correlation of results of the depression subscale with the Beck Depression Inventory was r=0.809, and with the subscale of depression of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was r=0.797. The correlation of anxiety subscale scores with scores of the anxiety subscale of HADS was r=0.805. These findings were replicated in the second study among 101 persons with diabetes. In the test-retest reliability, after 30 minutes, the correlation of subscale scores of depression was r=0.845, and for the subscale of anxiety r=0.814. Preliminary sten norms were elaborated among 340 persons with diabetes. Conclusions: The preliminary psychometric properties of the scale are good enough to apply this scale as a screening tool in clinical practice.