Use of the Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire and the AD8 Questionnaire for Screening Depression in Older People in Communities

Abstract Background Depression presents with emotional and somatic symptoms, and sometimes cognitive complaints. On the other hand, depression is one of the important psychiatric symptoms of mild cognitive impairment and dementia.Methods Residents who were older than 50 years reported their depressive tendency using the Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire (TDQ) and cognitive complaints using the AD8 questionnaire and were assessed using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) and for objective cognitive evaluation using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).Results TDQ score (OR 1.154, p = 0.003) and AD8 score (OR 1.769, p = 0.018) were statistically significant in predicting current major depressive disorder (MDD) when adjustment were made for age, sex, sleep quality and cognitive performance. However, in elderly people with age ≥ 65, TDQ score failed to distinguish a diagnosis of current MDD from no such diagnosis (AUC 0.780, p = 0.063). A linear combination of TDQ and AD8 scores provided a new predictive score that successfully separated elderly people with MDD from those without it (AUC 0.875, p = 0.013). Finally, decision-tree learning was used to generate a classification tree for classifying people with and without current MDD. At the first decision level, value less than 29 from the sum of TDQ score and 4 folds of AD8 score 100% excluded people without current MDD.Conclusions The self-reported response to the TDQ is a feasible way to identify MDD in community-dwelling people. Combining TDQ and AD8 scores further improved detecting depression in older people in communities.