Adequação da escala de depressão geriátrica ao idoso internado: estudo comparativo com a subescala de sintomas depressivos da EDAH.

Abstract

The collection of clinical data can be difficult in the elderly. An important aspect of this problem is the approach of depressive symptoms, especially when the elderly is hospitalized. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is one of the most used tools to track this type of clinical manifestation in the elderly. There is evidence indicating that GDS can be applied in elderly patients with physical illness, but more studies are needed to strengthen the validity of this scale among them. Within a hospital, items of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), whose affirmative responses indicate depressive reactions, should indicate normality. To assess the adequacy of the GDS with 30 items (GDS-30) in elderly hospitalized patients when compared with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Observational and cross-sectional study of 50 elderly patients hospitalized in the University Hospital Lauro Wanderley (HULW) through the application of GDS-30 and HADS. The interobserver agreement was assessed by kappa index and the correspondences between the scales by Pearson correlation analysis. The mean age of patients was 68.9 (± 8.2) years, 56% male and 28% illiterate. More patients were classified with clinically significant depressive symptomatology through the GDS (32%) than the subscale of depression EDAH (24%) and the interrater agreement was moderate for GDS and the HADS-D but discreet for the anxiety subscale. The kappa indexes of GDS and EDAH-D were satisfactory, while the subscale of anxiety was not. A correlation coefficient of 0.85 (p = 0.0001) between the GDS among examiners was found. There was satisfactory adequacy of the GDS to elderly patients hospitalized in a public educational institution. The correlation between scores of GDS-30 and HADS depression subscale was moderate, but acceptable, indicating that GDS can be applied in the hospital, since the first one is specifically indicated for hospitalized patients. Reproducibility between GDS Examiners was high, indicating stability in the measure.