Validation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 with Iranian students

Objectives: Depression is a serious public health problem in community settings and primary care. The Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) is a brief depression screener. It has been used in both research and practice settings. The PHQ-2 has not had its validity examined in academic settings in Iran.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate reliability, validity, and factorial structure of the PHQ-2 in a convenience sample of 157 Iranian volunteer college students selected from the Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran. They were completed the PHQ-2, and the Loneliness Scale (LS).Results: The mean score of the PHQ-2 was 2.3 (SD=1.64). The Cronbach s α coefficient was 0.74, indicating high internal consistency. The PHQ-2 correlated 0.64 with the LS, donating good construct validity. The results of the factor analysis of the PHQ-2 identified one factor labeled: General depression (79.87% of the variance).Conclusions: The PHQ-2 has a unidimensional structure, acceptable validity and reliability, and it can be used in the non-clinical settings in Iran.

کلیدواژه ها:

depression ، validation ، Patient Health Questionnaire-2 ، students ، Iran