Automated Screening for Depression: Toward Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Uses of Computerized Speech Recognition

The feasibility of using computers with speech recognition capability in screening for depression was examined. Computerized and written forms of the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale were administered to 19 Spanish-speaking and 19 English-speaking primary care medical patients (n = 38) at a hospital-based outpatient depression clinic. A counterbalanced experimental design was employed to randomly assign the order of administration to the language groups. Psychometric analyses of the two methods suggested that the two forms were highly equivalent in both languages. There were no significant differences in the means and variances of the two forms. Ranked-order correlations and coefficient alpha estimates for interitem consistency were high. The two methods were found to be acceptable in equal proportionsfor both language groups, with a tendency to prefer the computerized method.