The Standardization of the Korean Version of Brief Edinburgh Depression Scale as a Screening Tool for Depression in Cancer Patients

ABSTRACT

Objectives : Depression is a common psychiatric disorder in cancer patients. The Brief Edinburgh Depression Scale(BEDS), which is an abbreviated version of the Edinburgh Depression Scale, may serve as a useful tool in screening for the depression in patients with the medical illnesses. This report investigated the reliability and validity of the Korean Version of the BEDS(K-BEDS) for the depression in cancer patients. METHODS : One-hundred cancer patients were enrolled in this study. All subjects completed the K-BEDS, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale(HADS), and the Karnofsky Performance Status Scale(KPSS). Reliability, validity and Receiver Operating Characteristic(ROC) curve analysis measures were assessed. RESULTS : The K-BEDS showed good internal consistency(Cronbach alpha=0.77) and test-retest reliability(0.94, p<0.001). All item-total correlations were above 0.3. Also, it revealed moderate correlation with the depression subscale of the HADS(r=0.617), but no correlation with the KPSS. Exploratory factor analysis produced only one factor, accounting for 47.1% of the total variance. The most valid cutoff value to screen for depression was a total score of 5 on the K-BEDS, which showed sensitivity of 62.5% and specificity of 86.4% with a positive predictive value of 4.60 and a negative predictive value of 0.43. CONCLUSION : The present findings suggested that the K-BEDS would have good psychometric properties to screen for the depression in cancer patients.