ABSTRACT
Objective:To test the reliability and validity of the Early Symptom Measurement of Post-Stroke Depression-Short Form (ESMPSD-SF).Methods:Totally 325 patients with early stage stroke were investigated by the demographic questionnaire and the Early Symptom Measurement of Post-Stroke Depression-Short Form. Exploratory factors, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis were used to establish the reliability and validity of the scale.Results:Exploratory factor analysis extracted four factors: "low", "guilt", "emotional" and "wakefulness", which explained 74.228% of the total variation of depression. All the model fit indexes of confirmatory factor analysis and the standardized factor loadings of each item were up to standard, and the variances explained by each item were within acceptable range. The internal consistency reliability of the total scale was 0.866, the internal consistency of the domains ranged from 0.649 to 0.882, the corrected item-total correlation coefficient ranged from 0.401 to 0.676, and the item-subscale correlation coefficient ranged from 0.647 to 0.923.Conclusions:ESMPSD-SF demonstrated good reliability and validity and can be used to screen depressive symptoms in patients with early stage stroke.