DescriptionPurpose: The purpose of this project was to determine whether the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)-II or the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-8 would be a more effective assessment tool for identifying depression in Army National Guard (ARNG) soldiers during their annual periodic health assessment.
Methodology: A normative comparison study of the BDI-II and PHQ-8 to detect depression in adults. Both were distributed to ARNG soldiers who self-reported during their annual periodic health assessment (PHA) over the three month period.
Results: A total of 841 surveys were distributed. A total of 136 surveys were returned, of which 115 were complete and used for data analysis. Findings were compared using Pearson's R correlation and examined whether there were statistically significant differences in the results of the BDI-II when compared with the PHQ-8. There was a positive linear correlation between the two tools, r=0.86, n=115, p=0.05. The coefficient of determination (r2) was 0.73. Overall there was a good, positive correlation between Beck’s Depression Inventory II and depression scores. The Cronbach’s alpha of the completed Beck’s Depression Inventory II was 0.91 (95% CO=0.8657, 0.9337) whereas the Cronbach’s alpha of the PHQ-8 was 0.82 (95% CI=0.749, 0.8719).
Implications for Practice: The current mandated screening tool for depression is the PHQ-8. However, the New Jersey Adjutant General, Medical Command, and the New Jersey State Surgeon have the authorization to improve the standard operating procedure including both BDI-II and the DoD approved PHQ-8 screening tool to satisfy all current regulations and potentially decrease the amount of suicide attempts and/or deaths within the NJARNG.