Determination of Zung Depression Scale Cut-off Points Using ROC Analysis

Zung Depression Scale is a frequently used diagnostic test in clinics. In clinical trials, the psychometric properties of diagnostic tests should be good for patient and healthy discrimination. The aim of this study is to find the cut points for male and female sample of Zung Depression Scale using ROC analysis. For this purpose, 200 people including with 100 people with depression diagnosis those whom stay in Haydarpa？a Numune Hospital and Bezmialem Hospital and 100 healthy people without any psychological disturbance participated. Questionnaire form containing demographic form and Zung Depression Scale were administered. As a result of the ROC analysis, 56 points for male sample with 0.75 sensitivity and 0.97 specificity and 52 points for female sample with 0.65 sensitivity and 0.95 specificity were obtained as the cut points. When the area under the ROC curve was examined, it was found that the area of 0.89 for the male sample and 0.86 for the female sample were statistically significant. Comparing the mean depression scores of patients and healthy subjects, ？t is seen that depression scores of the patients were significantly higher. As a result of these findings, it is seen that Zung Depression Scale can make good patient-healthy discrimination and the psychometric properties of the cut-off points to be used in making this discrimination are sufficient