ArticleBMC psychiatry2020
Validation of the PHQ-9 depression scale in Ethiopian cancer patients attending the oncology clinic at Tikur Anbessa specialized hospital.
Article in BMC psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- 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
- Global prevalence and determinant factors of pain, depression, and anxiety among cancer patients: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.BMC psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Anxiety and depression among cancer patients in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Forty years later: adult health and non-communicable disease following the 1984-1985 Great Ethiopian Famine - a retrospective cohort study.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Construction of an explainable machine learning model based on SHAP for predicting cardiovascular mortality risk among American cancer survivors.Discover oncology · 2026Article
- Prevalence and correlates of depressive symptoms among Ethiopian and Ethiopian-Descent adults in the Seattle metropolitan area: A cross-sectional study.PLOS mental health · 2026Article
- Body Mass Index and Depressive Symptoms as Risk Factors for Urinary Incontinence in Women: A Nationally Representative Study.International urogynecology journal · 2025Article
- Article
- Charting the course of depression care: a meta-analysis of reliability generalization of the patient health questionnaire (PHQ- 9) as the measure.Discover mental health · 2025Article
- Joint association of dietary live microbe intake and depression with cancer survivor in US adults: evidence from NHANES.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- The relationship between oxidative balance score, depression, and survival among adult cancer survivors in the United States.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Protocol for an Exploratory RCT of the Traumatic Stress Relief Intervention With Persons With Lived Experience of Leprosy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Journal of tropical medicine · 2025Article
- The impact of airway management guided by Protection Motivation Theory on the prevention and prognosis of post-stroke pneumonia.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Psychological repercussions of breast or uterine cervical cancer disclosure to women in Gabon.PloS one · 2025Article
- A higher burden of post-stroke depression and anxiety and their predictors among stroke survivors in the Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia, in 2024: a prospective multicenter study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Improving Depression Screening in Adult Patients With Cancer.Journal of the advanced practitioner in oncology · 2024Article
- Breast Cancer and Risk of Depression: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study Among Women With and Without Breast Cancer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.JCO global oncology · 2024Article
- The Impact of a Diet Rich in Omega-3 Fatty Acids on the Quality of Life of Patients with Squamous Cell Lung Cancer and Comorbid Depression: A Retrospective Study.Actas espanolas de psiquiatria · 2024Article
- Association of depressive symptoms and sleep disturbances with survival among US adult cancer survivors.BMC medicine · 2024Article
- Prevalence and associated factors of depression among women with advanced pelvic organ prolapse in Northwest Ethiopia: cross-sectional study.BMC women's health · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough depression is highly prevalent among cancer patients, it is often underdiagnosed and poorly managed particularly in developing nations. These shortcomings can have substantial adverse effects not only on the disease prognosis but also on patients' quality of life. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 is a widely used depression screening tool but it has not been validated among patients with chronic illnesses such as cancer in Ethiopia. We aim to validate the PHQ-9 among Ethiopian cancer patients in an outpatient setting.
methodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among cancer patients attending the oncology clinic at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH). We assessed criterion validity and performance of the PHQ-9 test against the gold standard Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) diagnostic tool among patients with cancer. The MINI was administered by psychiatric nurses who were blind to the initial PHQ-9 screening tool.
resultsA total of 163 patients completed the 2 stages of a diagnostic interview in the study. The majority (64%) of the participants were women, the mean age was 46 (13.5) years. Using the gold standard MINI test the prevalence of Major Depressive Episode (MDE) was 15%. The internal consistency (Cronbach's α) for PHQ-9 was 0.78 suggesting good (acceptable) internal consistency for the reliability of the test scores. When the total PHQ-9 score was used to identify cases of MDE, the Area under the Curve (AUC) was 0.93 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.88-0.97) on Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis. This shows evidence for the excellent discriminating power of the PHQ-9 between cases and non-cases of MDE. At cutoff point ≥4, the PHQ-9 had a sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 78.1% on the ROC curve to detect MDE.
conclusionPHQ-9 is a reliable and valid instrument to detect MDE among individuals with chronic conditions such as cancer patients in outpatient settings and it can be used in resource-limited settings for early diagnosis and proper therapy of such patients.
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