A Study on The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)

The aim of this study is to evaluate the results of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale by applying a sample without any physical discomfort. The number of people with complaints such as anxiety and depression is increasing day by day. The items in the hospital anxiety and depression scale used in this study were directed to healthy individuals without using the word “hospital”. 240 of the participants were female and 36 were male. There are 182 people aged 35 and over, and 178 are university graduates. In addition, 142 of the participants work as executive positions. Work experience of 16 years and over is 114 persons. The study was performed with 276 people without any physical discomfort. The data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0. Constructive factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used for construct validity. In the confirmatory factor analysis, model test values (p<0.05); x2 (57.84), x2/df (2.899), Confirmatory Factor Analysis is significant. In addition, fit index values were found to be within the "acceptable harmonization" limits of GFI (.958), CFI (.953), SRMR (.0487), and RMSEA (.080) (Kline, 2005; Sumer, 2000). As a result of the analyzes, 2 of the 14 items of the scale were eliminated because the factor loads were low. This scale, which was collected under 2 factors in the literature, was collected under 3 factors in this study. The first dimension of 6 items is named anxiety. The third dimension was named as depression, and the third with 3 items was called mild depression. In addition, Cronbach's Alpha (0.81) and AVE and CR values calculated within the scope of reliability analysis indicate that the scale is applicable to individuals without physical illness. Composite Reliability (CR) and Convergence Validity (AVE) values for the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were calculated for each dimension separately. According to this, the AVE values of all dimensions are 0.50 and the CR values are higher than 0.70. CR values higher than the AVE values (0.50) are expected to be higher than the critical value (0.70). The scale is also reliable, valid and usable for non-bodily diseases