Reliability analysis of the Malay version of the center for epidemiologic studies-depression scale (CESD) among adolescents in Malaysia

Sarbhan Singh; Rafdzah Ahmad Zaki; Nik Daliana Nik Farid; Kushilpal Kaur

doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101585

Reliability analysis of the Malay version of the center for epidemiologic studies-depression scale (CESD) among adolescents in Malaysia

Prev Med Rep. 2021 Oct 7:24:101585. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2021.101585. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Authors

Sarbhan Singh¹, Rafdzah Ahmad Zaki², Nik Daliana Nik Farid², Kushilpal Kaur³

Affiliations

¹ Institute for Medical Research (IMR), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Ministry of Health Malaysia, Setia Alam 40170, Malaysia.
² Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
³ Department of Psychiatry, Hospital Selayang, Ministry of Health, Malaysia, Selangor 68100, Malaysia.

Abstract

Depression is a common mental disorder that affects many adolescents worldwide. Therefore, there is a need for reliable instruments to screen for depression symptoms among adolescents. This study aims to determine the reliability of the Malay version of the Centre of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD) among adolescents in Malaysia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 65 adolescents ages between 12 and 14 years from two secondary schools in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur from May 2017 to July 2017. Cronbach's alpha (α), McDonald's omega (ω), Spearman Brown split half reliability (r_SB), and Intra-class Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were examine to determine the internal consistency and two week test-retest reliability. The overall CESD scale was found to have good internal consistency with α = 0.882 (95% CI 0.837, 0.914), ω = 0.886 (95% CI 0.837, 0.916) and r_SB = 0.909. The CESD subscales, Somatic symptoms (α = 0.824; 95% CI 0.739, 0.878; ω = 0.828; 95% CI 0.738, 0.885; r_SB = 0.825), Depressive affect (α = 0.822; 95% CI 0.745, 0.880; ω = 0.834; 95% CI 0.750, 0.884; r_SB = 0.847) and Positive affect (α = 0.610; 95% CI 0.326, 0.721; ω = 0.612; 95% CI 0.379, 0.723 and r_SB = 0.608) indicated acceptable to good internal consistency. The 2-week test-retest reliability ICC was 0.926 (95% CI 0.851, 0.961) for the total score reliability. The reliability analysis of the Malay version of CESD shows satisfactory α, ω, r_SB and ICC values, therefore making it a reliable instrument to screen for depression among adolescents in Malaysia.

Keywords: Adolescent; CESD; Depression; Malay; Reliability.