Investigation of the Psychometric Properties of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) Recommended for General Medical Practitioners, on a Sample of Patients with Impaired Motor Functions

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate the psychometric characteristics of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) on a sample of patients with impaired motor functions. HADS was used to examine the current psychoemotional state of 73 women and 27 men aged 62.1±13.7 years who were in the hospital for inpatient rehabilitation for motor function disorders arising from a stroke (n=50) or developing against the background of chronic musculoskeletal disorders (n=50). Independent of the psychologist, a psychiatrist examined the same patients, filling out Hamilton Anxiety and Depression scales. A comparison of the findings led to the conclusion of overdiagnosis with the HADS subscales. At the same time, it is shown that the questionnaire items have satisfactory indices of discriminativeness and internal reliability. The combination of low content and convergent validity of some items of the questionnaire allowed modifying subscales, reducing the number of items without prejudice to psychometric characteristics. By comparing the data obtained with an objective external criterion for the Anxiety (HADS-A) and Depression (HADS-D) subscales, new cutoffs (9 points) were determined for diagnosing the presence or absence of anxiety and depression, which allows to use this version of the test more effectively for screening the current psychoemotional state in patients with impaired motor functions who enter the second stage of medical rehabilitation.