Screening for depressive symptoms among the elderly in Israel. A reliability and validity study.

The Hadassah Elderly Depression Screening Scale (HEDSS)--a modified version of Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale and Beck's Depression Index--was developed for use among the elderly in Israel. In a sample of 183 elderly residents of Jerusalem, the scale proved to be highly reliable and able to differentiate between persons diagnosed as depressed and those defined as healthy. Moreover, it was found to be valid among subpopulations grouped by sex, education and ethnicity. Various cutoff points were tested for targeting screening at specific populations.