1. Differential item functioning due to cognitive status does not impact depressive symptom measures in four heterogeneous samples of older adults
- Author
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Fieo, Robert, Mukherjee, Shubhabrata, Dmitrieva, Natalia O, Fyffe, Denise C, Gross, Alden L, Sanders, Elizabeth R, Romero, Heather R, Potter, Guy G, Manly, Jennifer J, Mungas, Dan M, and Gibbons, Laura E
- Subjects
Biological Psychology ,Clinical and Health Psychology ,Health Services and Systems ,Health Sciences ,Psychology ,Depression ,Acquired Cognitive Impairment ,Aging ,Clinical Research ,Brain Disorders ,Neurosciences ,Dementia ,Neurodegenerative ,Behavioral and Social Science ,Mental Health ,Mental health ,Aged ,Aged ,80 and over ,Cognition ,Cognition Disorders ,Depressive Disorder ,Female ,Humans ,Longitudinal Studies ,Male ,Middle Aged ,Psychiatric Status Rating Scales ,depressive symptoms ,differential item function ,cognitive impairment ,item bias ,Clinical Sciences ,Cognitive Sciences ,Geriatrics ,Clinical sciences ,Health services and systems ,Clinical and health psychology - Abstract
ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to determine whether differential item functioning (DIF) due to cognitive status impacted three depressive symptoms measures commonly used with older adults.MethodsDifferential item functioning in depressive symptoms was assessed among participants (N = 3558) taking part in four longitudinal studies of cognitive aging, using the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Participants were grouped by cognitive status using a general cognitive performance score derived from each study's neuropsychological battery and linked to a national average using a population-based survey representative of the US population. The Clinical Dementia Rating score was used as an alternate grouping variable in three of the studies.ResultsAlthough statistically significant DIF based on cognitive status was found for some depressive symptom items (e.g., items related to memory complaints, appetite loss, lack of energy, and mood), the effect of item bias on the total score for each scale was negligible.ConclusionsThe depressive symptoms scales in these four studies measured depression in the same way, regardless of cognitive status. This may reduce concerns about using these depression measures in cognitive aging research, as relationships between depression and cognitive decline are unlikely to have been due to item bias, at least in the ways that were measured in the datasets we considered.
- Published
- 2015