Variable Details

Available Studies

ROS, MAP, MARS, Clinical Core, LATC

Scaled? 

Not Scaled

Variable Type 

Longitudinal

Variable Name 

cesdsum

Categories

Depression

Depressive symptoms
Measure of depressive symptoms (Modified CES-D)

Depressive symptoms are assessed with a modified, 10-item version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D)*. Participants are asked whether or not they experienced each of ten symptoms much of the time in the past week. The score is the total number of symptoms experienced. Items 4 and 7 are reverse coded so the response is consistent with depressive symptom =1.

Participants are presented with the following items:

Item no.ItemCalcItem no. in 20-item CES-D*
1I felt that everything I did was an effort.Yes=17
2My sleep was restless.Yes=111
3I felt depressed.Yes=16
4I was happy.No=112
5I felt lonely.Yes=114
6People were unfriendly.Yes=115
7I enjoyed life.No=116
8I felt sad.Yes=118
9I felt that people disliked me.Yes=119
10I could not get going.Yes=120

Note on missing data: The score is rescaled to be out of 10 by averaging the non-missing item values and multiplying by 10. For example, if only 8 questions are answered, and the sum is 6, then 6/8 = 0.75, multiplied by 10 results in a score of 7.5. This is only done if less than 5 items are missing.

*Reference for full 20-item CES-D: Radloff LS: The CES-D Scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement 1:385-401, 1977.


Publications