A preliminary investigation of the reliability and validity of the Brief Assessment Schedule Depression Cards and the Beck Depression Inventory-Fast Screen to screen for depression in older stroke survivors

Objective To conduct an initial assessment of the reliability and validity of the Brief Assessment Schedule Depression Cards (BASDEC) and the Beck Depression Inventory-Fast Screen (BDI-FS) to screen for depression in older stroke survivors. Methods Participants from four inpatient rehabilitation units completed the BASDEC and the BDI-FS together with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) for comparison. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis 1 Disorders (SCID) was then completed with all participants to ascertain a criterion depression diagnosis. The BASDEC and BDI-FS were subsequently completed for a second time. Results Forty-nine stroke survivors (M = 78.80, SD = 6.79 years) were included. The BASDEC and BDI-FS demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and test–retest reliability. The BASDEC (cut-off ≥7) resulted in a sensitivity of 1.0 and specificity of 0.95 for detecting major depression whereas the BDI-FS (cut-off ≥4) had a sensitivity of 0.71 and specificity of 0.74. When participants with minor depression were included in analyses, sensitivity lowered to 0.69 (specificity = 0.97) for the BASDEC and 0.62 (specificity = 0.78) for the BDI-FS. Conclusions The BASDEC and BDI-FS were found to have acceptable reliability. The BASDEC demonstrated some advantage in criterion validity over the BDI-FS at the examined cut-offs