Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Oct;110(3):248-59.
doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2008.01.023. Epub 2008 Mar 4.

Psychometric properties of the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 in older primary care patients

Andrew T Gloster  1 , Howard M Rhoades, Diane Novy, Jens Klotsche, Ashley Senior, Mark Kunik, Nancy Wilson, Melinda A Stanley
Affiliations

Psychometric properties of the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 in older primary care patients

Andrew T Gloster et al. J Affect Disord. 2008 Oct.

Abstract

The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) was designed to efficiently measure the core symptoms of anxiety and depression and has demonstrated positive psychometric properties in adult samples of anxiety and depression patients and student samples. Despite these findings, the psychometric properties of the DASS remain untested in older adults, for whom the identification of efficient measures of these constructs is especially important. To determine the psychometric properties of the DASS 21-item version in older adults, we analyzed data from 222 medical patients seeking treatment to manage worry. Consistent with younger samples, a three-factor structure best fit the data. Results also indicated good internal consistency, excellent convergent validity, and good discriminative validity, especially for the Depression scale. Receiver operating curve analyses indicated that the DASS-21 predicted the diagnostic presence of generalized anxiety disorder and depression as well as other commonly used measures. These data suggest that the DASS may be used with older adults in lieu of multiple scales designed to measure similar constructs, thereby reducing participant burden and facilitating assessment in settings with limited assessment resources.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 4th ed. Washington, D.C: Author; 2000.
    1. Antony M, Bieling PJ, Cox BJ, Enns MW, Swinson RP. Psychometric properties of the 42-item and 21-item versions of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales in clinical groups and community a sample. Psychological Assessment. 1998;10:176–181.
    1. Beck JG, Stanley MA. Assessment of anxiety disorder in older adults: Current concerns, future prospects. In: Antony MM, Orsillo SM, Roemer L, editors. Practitioner’s guide to empirically based measures of anxiety. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers; 2001. pp. 43–48.
    1. Beck AT, Steer RA. Beck Anxiety Inventory: Manual. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation; 1990.
    1. Beck AT, Steer RA, Brown GK. Beck Depression Inventory Manual. 2nd Edition. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation; 1996.

Publication types