Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) is a widely used self-report measure that can be administered in a wide variety of settings and populations. It has been shown to have good psychometric properties and case-finding capability in psychiatric samples and medical patients. Moreover, it is short and inexpensive in terms of professional time needed for administration and scoring. In addition, it is a reliable indicator of symptom intensity and severity and can be used to monitor remission in treatment of depressive disorders.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties and the factor structure of the BDI-II in nonclinical community samples of middle-aged and older adults. To this end, the BDI-II was administered to 542 community-dwellers of a wide age range and education level and the results were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and one-way analysis of variance.

Understanding the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II)

As a result, the BDI-II was found to be a unidimensional measure of depressive symptoms in the sample studied. Furthermore, the BDI-II was also found to be very sensitive to changes in depressive symptomatology and to discriminate between individuals with different levels of symptomatology. The BDI-II was also found unbiased in the measurement of depressive symptoms in comparison with other measures of psychological distress.

Lastly, the test information function (TIC) of the BDI-II was determined by applying item responses theory and showed that the instrument offers the most useful information for determining a person’s depression level at a score of around 2.3 SD above the mean.