CONCORDANCE BETWEEN 2 MEASURES OF DEPRESSION IN THE HISPANIC HEALTH AND NUTRITION EXAMINATION SURVEY

A concordance analysis between the Center for Epidemiologic Studies De pression Scale (CES-D) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NI MH) Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) for current major depression w as conducted using data from Cuban Americans and Puerto Rican responde nts to the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES). Overall agreement between the two depression measures was relatively h igh, which suggested that the CES-D might be appropriate as a first-st age screening instrument for community-based surveys of clinical depre ssion. Female gender and indicators of social class (education, income , poverty index, and employment) were related to low specificity and l ow agreement. The estimated cutoff points of the CES-D that best predi cted DIS current major depression were different between the two ethni c groups; 17 for Cuban Americans, and 20 for Puerto Ricans. A receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis revealed that the trad itional method of defining CES-D cases by summing the scores for each item was superior to counting only the persistent symptoms, that is, t hose present nearly everyday.