SynthesisBMC psychiatry2012
Comparing the accuracy of brief versus long depression screening instruments which have been validated in low and middle income countries: a systematic review.
Synthesis in BMC psychiatry, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy of mental health screening tools applicable to adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Validated screening tools to identify common mental disorders in perinatal and postpartum women in India: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review of screening instruments for depression for use in antenatal services in low resource settings.BMC psychiatry · 2017Pooled it
- Validated Screening Tools for Common Mental Disorders in Low and Middle Income Countries: A Systematic Review.PloS one · 2016Pooled it
- Reliability and validity of depression assessment among persons with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa: systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) · 2014Pooled it
- Identifying predictors of student depression through validated machine learning pipelines.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and their predictors among internally displaced persons in a conflict-affected area of Metekel Zone, Northwest Ethiopia: structural equation modeling.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- The screening trap: Why clinical interviews still matter in South African occupational mental health care.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2025Article
- COVID-19 and mental health in 8 low- and middle-income countries: A prospective cohort study.PLoS medicine · 2023Article
- Cognitive Health in Persons With Human Immunodeficiency Virus: The Impact of Early Treatment, Comorbidities, and Aging.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Article
- Operationalizing Depression Screening in Ambulatory Palliative Care: A Quality Improvement Project.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2023Article
- The methods of improving cultural sensitivity of depression scales for use among global indigenous populations: a systematic scoping review.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2023Article
- The protective effect of mushroom consumption on depressive symptoms in Korean population.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Challenges in simultaneous validation of mental health screening tools in multiple languages: Adolescent assessments in Hausa and Pidgin in Nigeria.SSM. Mental health · 2022Article
- Perception of HIV physicians in Spain towards diagnosis and management of neuropsychiatric comorbidities in people with HIV.HIV medicine · 2022Article
- What is the global prevalence of depression among men who have sex with men? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of general psychiatry · 2022Article
- Psychometric properties and factor structure of the Kessler-10 among Ethiopian adults.Journal of affective disorders · 2022Article
- A Concise Occupational Mental Health Screening Tool for South African Workplaces.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Is there an optimal screening tool for identifying perinatal depression within clinical settings of sub-Saharan Africa?SSM. Mental health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGiven the high prevalence of depression in primary health care (PHC), the use of screening instruments has been recommended. Both brief and long depression screening instruments have been validated in low and middle income countries (LMIC), including within HIV care settings. However, it remains unknown whether the brief instruments validated in LMIC are as accurate as the long ones.
methodsWe conducted a search of PUBMED, the COCHRANE library, AIDSLINE, and PSYCH-Info from their inception up to July 2011, for studies that validated depression screening instruments in LMIC. Data were extracted into tables and analyzed using RevMan 5.0 and STATA 11.2 for the presence of heterogeneity.
resultsNineteen studies met our inclusion criteria. The reported prevalence of depression in LMIC ranged from 11.1 to 53%. The area under curve (AUC) scores of the validated instruments ranged from 0.69-0.99. Brief as well as long screening instruments showed acceptable accuracy (AUC≥0.7). Five of the 19 instruments were validated within HIV settings. There was statistically significant heterogeneity between the studies, and hence a meta-analysis could not be conducted to completion. Heterogeneity chi-squared = 189.23 (d.f. = 18) p<.001.
conclusionBrief depression screening instruments in both general and HIV-PHC are as accurate as the long ones. Brief scales may have an edge over the longer instruments since they can be administered in a much shorter time. However, because the ultra brief scales do not include the whole spectrum of depression symptoms including suicide, their use should be followed by a detailed diagnostic interview.
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