VALIDATION OF PATIENT HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE-9 FOR ASSESSING DEPRESSION OF ADULTS IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

Depression is one of the most widely recognized and frequently
underdiagnosed and undertreated mental health issues around the world. The
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) has been suggested as the best accessible
screening and case-discovering instrument to measure the severity of depression.
The investigation aimed to set the reliability and validity of the PHQ-9 for the
adults in Bangladesh. A total of 321 Bangladeshi adults (170 males and 151
females) were the study participants. A standard process of three phases was
followed to adapt PHQ-9 in Bangladesh. The first phase was forward translation,
second phase was Focus Group Discussion and panel of expert's rating and third
phase was back translation into original language, piloting and final field data
collection. The results showed good reliability of the translated version; the total
scale Cronbach’s alpha is 0.837, gender-wise 0.839 for males and 0.841 is for
females; similarly, the Spearman-Brown Coefficient is 0.855, and the Guttman
Split-half coefficient is 0.848, which indicate the high Split-half reliability as well.
The content and construct validity suggest that the Bangla PHQ-9 is a valid tool
to assess the depression of Bangladeshi adults. Therefore, the Bangla version of
PHQ-9 gives an impression of being a reliable and valid instrument to assess and
diagnose depression among Bangladeshi people.