Psychometric Limitations of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale for Assessing Depressive Symptoms among Adults with HIV/AIDS: A Rasch Analysis

Table 5

Differential item functioning in the original 20-item CES-D and a 15-item version.

Demographic and clinical variables	Original 20-item version	15-item version (omitting items 2, 4, 8, 11 & 16)
Gender; (male, female, and transgender)	Item 15: unfriendly; Transgender > male; Item 17: crying; Female, transgender > male	Item 14: lonely; Males > transgender; Item 17: crying; Female, transgender > male
Race; (Black, White, and Other)	Item 20: could not get going; White > Black; Item 19: felt disliked; Black > White; Item 18: sad; White > Black; Item 16: enjoyed life; White > Other race; Item 6: depressed; White > Black	Item 20: could not get going; White > Black; Item 19: felt disliked; Black > White; Item 18: sad; White > Black; Item 6: depressed; White > Black; (Item 16 excluded)
Antidepressant use; (No/Yes)	Item 20: could not get going; Yes > No	None
AIDS diagnosis; (No/Yes)	Item 8: hopeful; No AIDS > AIDS	None (item 8 excluded)

Note. > indicates that the item was more easily endorsed by the first group than the second group. There was no differential item function related to age, education, income, duration of HIV diagnosis, or illicit drug use.
The transgender group was small () and results should thus be interpreted with caution.