Validity study of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items for Internet screening in depression among Chinese university students : Internet screening in depression

Abstract

<div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S1"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d6830091e113">Background</h5> <p id="P1">Internet intervention in Chinese University students would be a possible approach to overcome the gap between high rate of depression and high rates of underdiagnosis and undertreatment. As a popular measure of screening, the feasibility and user satisfaction of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items for online program were tested. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S2"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d6830091e118">Methods</h5> <p id="P2">The subjects were enrolled based on an email list from the students' office of a Chinese University, and 300 undergraduate students were randomly invited. Of which, 230 (76.7%) students were willing to participate in the study and completed the first test. After 2 weeks, a subsample of 150 (65.2%) subjects were randomly chosen to retake the test for the test–retest reliability. And 81 (35.2%) among the 230 subjects were randomly selected to undergo the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) within 48 h. Among 150 subjects, 120 (52.2%) completed client satisfaction questionnaire about this online screening program. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S3"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d6830091e123">Results</h5> <p id="P3">(1) The Cronbach's alpha was 0.80 and the test-retest reliability was 0.78; (2) the optimal cutoff score of 10 revealed a sensitivity of 0.74, specificity of 0.85, with an area under the curve of 0.897 (95% confidence interval: 0.823–0.970); (3) the mean duration of administration was 3.5 min; and (4) satisfaction with the online screening program was highly appreciated. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S4"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d6830091e128">Conclusions</h5> <p id="P4">The results indicated potential value of the online screening program for further Internet-administrated programs of depression among Chinese University students. </p> </div>