Abstract
We developed and evaluated a brief measure of depression for use within a population of older Australian war veterans and war widows. Derived from the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), the 12-item GDS-Veterans is designed to include items that most closely represent the thoughts and feelings of older veterans in relation to their war experiences. The scale was administered to 1,620 veterans and widows concurrent with the 36-item Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (MOS SF-36) quality of life measure. Of those surveyed, 13.5% indicated that they often or always worry about things that happened during the war, indicating that this item tapped an important dimension for many of the veteran population. Scores on the GDS-Veterans were strongly correlated with the Mental Health subscale (-.72) and the Mental Health Component Summary Score (-.68) of the MOS SF-36 quality of life measure.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. (1980). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (Xth ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Archibald, H. C., & Tuddenham, R. D. (1965). Persistent stress reaction after combat: A 20-year follow-up. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12, 475–481.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (1995). National health survey: SF-36 population norms, Australia. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (1996). Selected social and housing characteristics: 1996 census of population and housing (Catalogue No. 2015). Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Australian Commonwealth Department of Veterans’ Affairs. (1999). [Description of data]. Unpublished data.
Beusterien, K. M., Steinwald, B.,& Ware, J. (1996). Usefulness of the SF-36 Health survey in measuring health outcomes in the depressed elderly. Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, 9, 13–21.
Burdekin, B. (1993). Human rights and mental illness -Report of the national inquiry into human rights of people with mental illness. Canberra, Australia: AGPS.
Blazer, D. G., Burchett, B., Service, C., & George, L. K. (1991). The association of age and depression among the elderly: An epidemiologic exploration. Journal of Gerontology, 46, 210–215.
Byles, J. E., Harris, M. A., Nair, B. R.,& Butler, J. (1996). Preventive health programs for older Australians. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 6, 37–43.
Carpenter, I. (1996). Value of screening old age. In S. Ebrahim & A. Kaleche (Eds.), Epidemiology in old age. London: BMJ.
Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination. (1994). Canadian guide to clinical preventive health care. Ottowa, ON: Canada Communication Group.
Coleman, P. G. (1986). Ageing and reminiscence processes: Social and clinical implications. New York: Wiley.
Creamer, M., Morris, P., Biddle, D.,& Elliott, P. (1999). Treatment outcome in Australian veterans with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder:Acause for cautious optimism? Journal of Traumatic Stress, 12, 545–558.
Druss, B. G., Rohrbaugh, R. M., & Rosenheck, R. A. (1999). Depressive symptoms and health costs in older medical patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 156, 477–479.
Elder, G. H., Jr.,& Clipp, E. C. (1989). Combat experience and emotional health: Impairment and resilience in later life. Journal of Personality, 57, 311–341.
Garrard, J., Rolnick, S. J., Nitz, N. M., Luepke, L., Jackson, J., Fischer, L. R., Leibson, C., Bland, P. C., Heinrich, R., & Waller, L. A. (1998). Clinical detection of depression among community-based elderly people with self-reported symptoms of depression. Journal of Gerontology: Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 53, M92–101.
Goodger, B., Byles, J. E., Higginbotham, N., & Mishra, G. (1999). Assessment of a short scale to measures social support among older people. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 23, 260–265.
Gurland, B., Copeland, J., Kuriansky, J., Kelleher, M., Sharpe, L., & Dean, L. (1983). The mind and mood of ageing. London: Croom Helm.
Henderson, A. S., Jorm, A. F., MacKinnon, A., Christensen, H., Scott, L. R., Korten, A. E., & Doyle, C. (1993). The prevalence of depressive disorders and the distribution of depressive symptoms in later life: A survey using draft ICD-10 and DSM-IIIR. Psychological Medicine, 23, 719–724.
Hovens, J. E., Falger, P. R. J., Opden Velde, W., Schouter, E. G. W., DeGroer, J. H. M. & Van Duling, H. (1992). Occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder among Dutch World War II resistance veterans according to the SCID. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 6, 147–157.
Hyer, L., Stanger, E., & Boudewyns, P. (1999). The interaction of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression among older combat veterans. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55, 1073–1083.
Kay, D., Henderson, A., Scott, R., Wilson, J., Rickwood, D., Blazer, D. G., & Hybels, C. (1985). Dementia and depression amongst the elderly living in the Hobart community: The effect of the diagnostic criteria on the prevalence rates. Psychological Medicine, 15, 771–788.
Kendall, R. (1976). The classification of depressions: A review of contemporary confusion. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 15–28.
Koenig, H. G., Westlund, R., George, L. K., Hughes, D. C., Blazer, D. G., & Hybels, C. (1993). Abbreviating the Duke social support index for use in chronically ill elderly individuals. Psychosomatics, 34, 61–69.
Lichtenberg, P. A., Marcopulos, B. A., Steiner, D. A., & Tabscott, J. A. (1992). Comparison of theHamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Geriatric Depression Scale: Detection of depression in dementia patients. Psychological Reports, 70, 515–521.
Linn, L. S., & Yager, J. (1980). The effect of screening, sensitization, and feedback on notation of depression. Journal of Medical Education, 55, 942–949.
Livingston, G., Manela, M., & Katona, C. (1997). Cost of community care for older people. British Journal of Psychiatry, 171, 56–59.
Long, N., MacDonald, C., & Chamberlain, K. (1996). Prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety in a community sample of New Zealand Vietnam War veterans. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 30, 253–256.
Lyness, J. M., Noel, T. K., Cox, C., King, D. A., Conwell, Y., & Caine, E.D. (1997). Screening for depression in elderly primary care patients. A comparison of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Archives of Internal Medicine, 157, 449–454.
McCallum, J. (1995). The SF-36 in an Australian sample: Validating a new generic health status measure. Australian Journal of Public Health, 19, 160–166.
McDowell, I., & Newell, C. (1996). Measuring health: A guide to rating scales and questionnaires. New York: Oxford University Press.
McHorney, C. A., Ware, J. E., Lu, R., & Sherbourne, C. D. (1994). The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health survey (SF-36): III. Tests of data quality, scaling assumptions, and reliability across diverse patient groups. Medical Care, 2, 40–66.
Magruder-Habib, K., & Zung, W. W. K. (1990). Improving physicians’ recognition and treatment of depression in general medical care: Results from a randomized clinical trial. Medical Care, 28, 239–250.
Moore, J. T., Lilimperi, D. R., & Bobula, J. A. (1978). Recognition of depression by family medicine residents: The impact of screening. Journal of Family Practice, 7, 509–513.
Old Age Depression Interest Group. (1993). How long should the elderly take anti-depressants? A double- blind placebo-controlled study of continuation/prophylaxis therapy with dothiepin. British Journal of Psychiatry, 162, 175–182.
Pitt, S. W., Schurink, J., Nair, B. R., Byles, J. E., & Heller, R. F. (1996). Use of the Short-Form-36 health survey to assess quality of life among Australian elderly. Australian Journal on Ageing, 15, 132–135.
Robinson, S., Rapaport, J., Durst, R., Rapaport, M., Rosca, P., Metzer, S., & Zilberman, L. (1990). The late effects of Nazi-persecution among elderly Holocaust survivors. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 82, 311–315.
Shea, M., Elkin, I., Imber, S., Sotsky, S. M., Watkins, J. T., Collins, J. F., Pilkonis, P. A., Beckham, E., Glass, D. R., Dolan, R. T. (1992). Course of depressive symptoms over follow-up. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 782–787.
Simon, G. E., von Korff, M., & Barlow, W. (1995). Health care costs of primary care patients with recognized depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52, 850–856.
Snaith, R. P. (1987). The concepts of mild depression. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 387–393.
Sutker, P. B., & Allain, A. N. (1996). Assessment of PTSD and other mental disorders in World War II and Korean conflict POW survivors and combat veterans. Psychological Australian Journal on Ageing, 14, 124–127.
Ware, J. E., Jr., & Sherbourne, C. D. (1994). The MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36): I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Medical Care, 30, 473–483.
Ware, J. E., Kosinski, M., & Keller, S. D. (1994). SF-36 Physical and Mental Health Summary Scales: A users manual. Boston: The Health Institute.
Weissman, M. M., Meyers, J. K., Tischler, G. L., Holzer, C. E., III, Leaf, P. J., Orvaschel, H., & Brody, J. A. (1985). Psychiatric disorders (DSM-III) and cognitive impairment among the elderly in aUS urban community. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 71, 366–379.
Woods, R. T. (1996). Handbook of the clinical psychology of ageing. Chichester, NY: Wiley.
Yesavage, J. A., Brink, T. L., Rose, T. L., Lum, O., Huang, V., Adey, M., & Leirer, V. O. (1983). Development and validation of a geriatric depression screening scale: A preliminary report. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 17, 37–49.
Zung, W. W. K., Magill, M., Moore, J. T., & George, D. T. (1983). Recognition and treatment of depression in a family medicine practice. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 44, 3–6.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was funded by the Australian Commonwealth Department of Veterans Affairs.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Byles, J.E., Higginbotham, N., Goodger, B. et al. Development of a depression scale for veterans and war widows. Int. J. Behav. Med. 7, 256–270 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327558IJBM0703_05
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327558IJBM0703_05