Sammanfattning
Introduction: The purpose was to evaluate a Danish translation of the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS) as a screening tool for depression among cognitively intact and slightly-moderately cognitively dysfunctioning elderly home help recipients (frail elderly). Material and method: The target population: 70 years of age or older frail elderly. Primary exclusion criteria: Terminal disease, severe dementia, and severe aphasia. Participants were screened by interview with the GDS and the Standardized Mini-Mental State Examination (SMMSE) and were evaluated with the ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for depressive disorders (ICD). SMMSE score =15 caused secondary exclusion because of uncertain diagnostics of depression in severe dementia. SMMSE evaluation separated two subpopulations: The cognitively intacte (n1 ) (SMMSE =25 points) and slightly-moderately cognitively dysfunctioning (n2 ) (SMMSE 24-16 points). Results: After the exclusions 187 continued in the study. There were complete data for (n=175). Depressives in the populations: (n=175): 30 (17%), (n1 =133): 20 (15%) and (n2 =42) 10 (24%). At the GDS score =5 points, sensitivity (SENS), specificity (SPEC), positive - and negative predictive values (%) in n, n1 og n2 were: 83, 84, 52, 96 - 75, 85, 47, 95 and 100, 81, 63, 100. At cut off score =6 points, which gave the highest values of both SENS og SPEC, the corresponding values were: 80, 90, 63, 96 - 70, 90, 56, 94 and 100, 91, 77, 100. Discussion: The study shows that the GDS carried out as an interview is a suitable screening tool for depression among cognitively intact and slightly-moderately cognitively dysfunctioning frail elderly.