Boundary curves of individual items in the distribution of total depressive symptom scores approximate an exponential pattern in a general population.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Previously, we proposed a model for ordinal scale scoring in which individual thresholds for each item constitute a distribution by each item. This lead us to hypothesize that the boundary curves of each depressive symptom score in the distribution of total depressive symptom scores follow a common mathematical model, which is expressed as the product of the frequency of the total depressive symptom scores and the probability of the cumulative distribution function of each item threshold. To verify this hypothesis, we investigated the boundary curves of the distribution of total depressive symptom scores in a general population.

Methods

Data collected from 21,040 subjects who had completed the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) questionnaire

SUBMITTER: Tomitaka S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5068372 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature