BackgroundDepressive disorders are leading contributors to burden of disease in developing countries. Research aiming to improve their diagnosis and treatment is fundamental in these settings, and psychometric tools are widely used instruments to support mental health research. Our aim is to validate and compare the psychometric properties of the Spanish versions of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSDS).Methodology/Principal FindingsA Spanish version of the CES-D was revised by 5 native Spanish speaking psychiatrists using as reference the English version. A locally standardized Spanish version of the ZSDS was used. These Spanish versions were administered to 70 patients with a clinical diagnosis of DSM-IV Major Depressive Episode (MDE), 63 without major depression but with clinical diagnosis of other psychiatric disorders (OPD), and 61 with no evidence of psychiatric disorders (NEP). For both scales, Cronbach's alpha (C-α) and Hierarchical McDonald Omega for polychoric variables (MD-Ω) were estimated; and receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis performed. For the CES-D and ZSDS scales, C-α was 0.93 and 0.89 respectively, while MD-Ω was 0.90 and 0.75 respectively. The area under the ROC curve in MDE+OPD was 0.83 for CES-D and 0.84 for ZSDS; and in MDE+NEP was 0.98 for CES-D and 0.96 for ZSDS. Cut-off scores (co) for the highest proportions of correctly classified (cc) individuals among MDE+OPD were ≥29 for CES-D (sensitivity (ss) = 77.1/specificity (sp) = 79.4%/(cc) = 78.2%) and ≥47 for ZSDS (ss = 85.7%/sp = 71.4%/cc = 78.9%). In the MDE+NEP, co were ≥24 for the CES-D (ss = 91.4%/sp = 96.7%/cc = 93.9%) and ≥45 for the ZSDS (ss = 91.4%/sp = 91.8%/cc = 91.6%).ConclusionSpanish versions of the CES-D and ZSDS are valid instruments to detect depression in clinical settings and could be useful for both epidemiological research and primary clinical settings in settings similar as those of public hospitals in Lima, Peru.

A brief cognitive evaluation permits a differentiation between dementia and depression but not between psychosis and depression in elderly patients of a psychiatric outpatient unit, who had complained of memory impairment. These data may be useful to develop an easy and low cost protocol to attend the population of public health services.

Objetivos: Describir los cambios en el agua corporal, masa magra, contenido de grasa, aclaramiento de creatinina y urea y características dietéticas de personas saludables en Lima-Perú. Material y métodos: Se incluyeron personas de sexo y edades entre 20 y 80 años, comparables con Índice Masa Corporal normal, autosuficientes, calidad de vida satisfactoria y sin enfermedad crónica. Se midieron los datos estructurales con Bioimpedancia. La función renal se determinó mediante la creatinina y urea en sangre y el aclaramiento de creatinina y de urea. Las características dietéticas se infirieron de la medición de urea, sodio y potasio en la misma muestra de orina. Resultados: Hubo diferencia significativa en: agua corporal, grasa, masa magra, creatinina (sérica y urinaria) y urea sérica entre sexos. La masa magra se relacionó directamente con el agua corporal (r=0,81; p=0,000 en hombres y r=0,465; p=0,000 en mujeres) e inversamente con la grasa. En el análisis de regresión lineal multivariado, únicamente la masa magra, grasa y agua corporal mostraron significancia estadística con la edad, pero los cambios de estas variables difirieron entre hombres y mujeres. La creatinina y urea sérica no cambiaron con la edad, pero sí el aclaramiento de ambas. El aclaramiento de urea tuvo regresión lineal en hombres y cúbica en las mujeres. Hubo correlación negativa entre edad e ingesta proteica en hombres (r=-0,594; p=0,006), sal sódica (r=-0,451; p=0,021) y potasio (r=-0,443; p=0,023) en mujeres. Conclusiones: La estructura corporal, filtración glomerular y hábitos dietéticos cambian con la edad en nuestra población normal, pero con características diferentes entre hombres y mujeres.

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