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Proposed Factor Structure of the Geriatric Depression Scale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2005

Javaid I. Sheikh
Affiliation:
Veterans Administration Medical Center, Palo Alto, California, U.S.A. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, U.S.A.
Jerome A. Yesavage
Affiliation:
Veterans Administration Medical Center, Palo Alto, California, U.S.A. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, U.S.A.
John O. Brooks
Affiliation:
Veterans Administration Medical Center, Palo Alto, California, U.S.A. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, U.S.A.
Leah Friedman
Affiliation:
Veterans Administration Medical Center, Palo Alto, California, U.S.A. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, U.S.A.
Peter Gratzinger
Affiliation:
Veterans Administration Medical Center, Palo Alto, California, U.S.A. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, U.S.A.
Robert D. Hill
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.
Anastasia Zadeik
Affiliation:
Memory Assessment Clinics, Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A.
Thomas Crook
Affiliation:
Memory Assessment Clinics, Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.A.

Abstract

The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is commonly used to measure depression in the elderly. However, there have been no reports of the underlying structure of the GDS. To this end, the GDS was administered to 326 community-dwelling elderly subjects, and the data were subjected to a factor analysis. A five-factor solution was selected and, after a varimax rotation, the factors that emerged could be described as: (1) sad mood, (2) lack of energy, (3) positive mood, (4) agitation, and (5) social withdrawal. This solution accounted for 42.9% of the variance. Knowledge of the factor structure should aid both clinicians and researchers in the interpretation of responses on the GDS.

Type
Research and Reviews
Copyright
© 1991 Springer Publishing Company

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