Purpose: Clients with chronic diseases may have depression that is not recognized by primary health providers. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure depression for Korean, and to test the validity and reliability of the instrument. Method: Data were collected through a survey over a period of 3 months. Subjects who participated in the study consisted of 908 Korean. The author used a convenience sampling method. The analysis of the data was done with SPSS PC+ for descriptive statistics, item analysis and factor analysis. Initially 58 items were generated from the interview data of 14 depression patients and from a literature review. This preliminary scale were analysis for reliability and validity.
Results: Initially 58 items were analyzed through the Index of Content Validity(CVI) and 49 items were selected. 4 factors were extracted through the principal component analysis, and these contributed 60.87% of the variance in the total score. Finally 40 items in the scale loaded 0.250.81 on one of 4 factors. Each factor was labeled. factorl was labeled ´psychosocial symptom-frustration´ and included 10 items, factor2 was labeled ´emotional phenomena-mood´ and included 15 items, factor3 was labeled ´physical symptom´ and included 9 items, and factor4 was labeled ´need aspect´ and included 6 items. Cronbach Coefficient Alpha for internal consistency was .97 for total 40 items. Conclusion: The study support the reliability and validity of the scale. Finally, the author suggests that this scale could be adequately applied to assessing the depression. And effective guidance program is required to improve mental health. This study can contribute to designing an appropriate depression prevention strategy in turn with the particular characteristics and problems of Korean.
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