Which of the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia or the Geriatric Depression Scale is more useful to screen for depression in older adults?

Abstract

Background: Depression in older adults is a major disorder that can be triggering, exacerbating, or co-occurring with dementia symptoms.

Aim: This study compared the diagnostic accuracy of the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), a depression screening tool developed for older adults.

Methods: Electronic searches were performed on the MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO databases using the following keywords: dementia, depression, and CSDD.

Results: The pooled sensitivity of the CSDD and the GDS was 0.89 and 0.82, the pooled specificity was 0.88 and 0.85, and the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve was 0.94 and 0.91, respectively. In the subgroup analysis, the CSDD had the highest accuracy in the pooled sensitivity of 0.91, the pooled specificity of 0.87, and the sROC curve of 0.95 in the dementia group, and the GDS was the best in the non-dementia group at 0.88, 0.82, and 0.93, respectively.

Conclusions: The CSDD showed high diagnostic accuracy in older adults with dementia, and the GDS in older adults without dementia.

Keywords: Aged; Dementia; Depression; Mass screening; Meta-analysis; Sensitivity and Specificity.