Philip Zazove|Helen E. Meador|James E. Aikens|Donald E. Nease|Daniel W. Gorenflo
Assessment of Depressive Symptoms in Deaf Persons
Michigan Medicine|Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living|Michigan Medicine|Michigan Medicine|Michigan Medicine|Michigan Medicine
evidence suggests deaf people may greater prevalence depressive symptoms however unclear whether commonly used written screening instruments accurate population unique cultural linguistic factorsdeaf persons n 71 residing southeastern michigansubjects completed zung selfrated depression scale written zsdsw american sign language zsdss formats hamilton depression scale hamd american sign language counterbalanced order followed test reading comprehension torc also provided extensive data demographic hearing loss language use social health care use variablesmean subject age 52 years 63 subjects women 95 caucasian 47 married 87 another deafhard hearing person thirty percent college degree 20 less 10th grade education zsdsw zsdss scores highly correlated r 079 although mean zsdsw score 28 points higher p 001 zsdss correlated highly r 080 hamd zsdsw r 071 significant interaction effect p 001 zsdsw hamd significantly associated among higher literacy subjects beta 080 p 001 lower literacy subjects beta 020 p 183 significant associations depression scores numerous demographic educational hearing loss social language variablescompared conventional zsdsw zsdss accurately assesses depression severity among deaf persons lower english literacy however given greater sensitivity zsdsw practical barriers zsdss physician practices research determine modality best routine depression screening