A Comparison of Depressive Symptom Self-Reported Measures in the Texas Youth Depression and Suicide Research Network (TX-YDSRN)

Under-diagnosis or delayed diagnosis of depression results in worse patient outcomes. Screening instruments help to address diagnosis but are underused in clinical practice. The use of different screening instruments by providers and by researchers makes it more difficult to assemble population-level data or interpret research findings in clinically useful ways. “Crosswalks” can be created that reliably allow the conversion of scores in one instrument to scores in another. The current report assessed the psychometric properties of the Patient Health Questionnaire – Adolescent (PHQ-A), 16-item self-reported Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptoms (QIDS-SR16), and its 5-item version, VQIDS-SR5, and established crosswalks between the measures. The three measures were found to be psychometrically sound in our sample, and each was sensitive to change over a one-month time period. Each measure could be reliably converted into the others. The 5-item VQIDS-SR5 holds promise as an effective tool for screening or repeated assessment due to its short length.