Validity of the short-form five-item Problem Area in Diabetes questionnaire as a depression screening tool in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

Aims/Introduction

Depression is prevalent in diabetes patients and associated with poor outcomes, but is currently underdiagnosed, with no firm consensus on screening methods. We evaluated the validity of the short-form five-item Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID-5) questionnaire as a screening tool for depression, comparing it with the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).

Materials and Methods

A total of 208 English-speaking adults with type 2 diabetes, recruited from outpatient clinics, completed the BDI-II, PHQ-9 and PAID-5 questionnaires in English. Cronbach's α was used for internal reliability. Convergent validity was examined with BDI-II and PHQ-9. Receiver operating characteristics analyses were used to identify optimal PAID-5 cut-offs for the diagnosis of depression.

Results

All three screening tools were highly reliable, with BDI-II, PHQ-9 and PAID-5 having a Cronbach's α of 0.910, 0.870 and 0.940, respectively. There was a good correlation between BDI-II and PHQ-9, with a correlation co-efficient (r) of 0.73; and a moderate correlation between PAID-5 and PHQ-9, and PAID-5 and BDI-II, with r of 0.55 and 0.55 respectively (P values <0.01). An optimal PAID-5 cut-off ≥9 corresponded to both a BDI-II cut-off >14 (sensitivity 72%, specificity 784%, area under the curve 0.809) and a PHQ-9 cut-off >10 (sensitivity 84%, specificity 74%, area under the curve 0.806). Using a PAID-5 cut-off ≥9, the prevalence of depressive symptoms was 36.1%.

Conclusions

Depressive symptoms are prevalent in people with type 2 diabetes, with the degree of distress significantly related to the severity of depressive symptoms. PAID-5 is a valid and reliable screening tool, and a score ≥9 could prompt further confirmation for depression.