ArticleBMC research notes2017
Exponential distribution of total depressive symptom scores in relation to exponential latent trait and item threshold distributions: a simulation study.
Article in BMC research notes, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Distinguishing between the exponential and Lindley distributions: An illustration from biological psychology.Behavior research methods · 2026Article
- Mathematical pattern of Kessler psychological distress distribution in the general population of the U.S. and Japan.BMC psychiatry · 2021Article
- Review
- SEM-Based Methods to Form Confidence Intervals for Indirect Effect: Still Applicable Given Nonnormality, Under Certain Conditions.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Responses to depressive symptom items exhibit a common mathematical pattern across the European populations.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Distribution of psychological distress is stable in recent decades and follows an exponential pattern in the US population.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Distributional patterns of item responses and total scores on the PHQ-9 in the general population: data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.BMC psychiatry · 2018Article
- Stability of the Distribution of Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Scores Against Age in the General Population: Data From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2018Article
- Article
- Characteristic distribution of the total and individual item scores on the Kessler Screening Scale for Psychological Distress (K6) in US adults.BMC psychiatry · 2017Article
- Article
- Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTotal depressive symptom scores in the general population have been reported to follow an exponential distribution except at the lowest end of the range of scores. To verify the hypothesis that total depressive symptom scores follow the distribution of the latent trait, we performed a simulation study of depressive symptom scoring modeled after the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R). To simulate the scoring of ordinal scale items in CIS-R, two sets of random numbers were generated, one expressing the degree of the latent trait of depressive symptoms and another expressing the threshold for each item. Random latent trait numbers greater than those of item thresholds indicated the presence of specific symptoms.
resultsWhen exponential distribution was set to the latent trait's random numbers and each item's threshold had a certain degree of standard deviation, simulated total depressive symptom scores showed a linear pattern except at the lowest end of scores with a log-normal scale. Our results suggest that total depressive symptom scores follow the distribution of the latent trait of depressive symptoms due to the property of ordinal scales, which is characterized by individual differences in the threshold of each item.
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