The Geriatric Depression Scale and Japanese American Older Adults

This paper presents a summary of preliminary analyses on the utility of the Geriatric Depression Scale (CDS) using a non-clinical sample of 86 Japanese American older adults. Psychometric analyses indicated that the GDS had fairly high internal consistency and reliability with this sample. Results were comparable to the internal consistency and reliability coefficients found by the developers of the GDS with their original sample. Additionally, GDS scores were low and did not differ for men and women, indicating that the current sample was relatively healthy and non-depressed. Although the results are promising, further research on the GDS must be conducted with a larger sample of Japanese American older adults before any conclusive results can be stated. Additional recommendations for future research examining the mental health of Japanese American older adults are also presented.