Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-76mfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-21T06:36:47.539Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Screening tools for common mental disorders in older adults in South Asia: a systematic scoping review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2021

Lachlan Fotheringham
Affiliation:
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Stella-Maria Paddick*
Affiliation:
Newcastle University, Translational and Clinical Medicine, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Evelyn Barron Millar
Affiliation:
Wolfson Research Centre, Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Claire Norman
Affiliation:
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Ammu Lukose
Affiliation:
Centre For Community Mental Health (CCMH), Mangalore, India
Richard Walker
Affiliation:
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Department of Medicine, North Shields, UK
Mathew Varghese
Affiliation:
National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Stella-Maria Paddick, Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle University, Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 6BE, UK. Email: stella-maria.paddick@ncl.ac.uk.

Abstract

Objectives:

Common mental disorders (CMDs), particularly depression, are major contributors to the global mental health burden. South Asia, while diverse, has cultural, social, and economic challenges, which are common across the region, not least an aging population. This creates an imperative to better understand how CMD affects older people in this context, which relies on valid and culturally appropriate screening and research tools. This review aims to scope the availability of CMD screening tools for older people in South Asia. As a secondary aim, this review will summarize the use of these tools in epidemiology, and the extent to which they have been validated or adapted for this population.

Design:

A scoping review was performed, following PRISMA guidelines. The search strategy was developed iteratively in Medline and translated to Embase, PsychInfo, Scopus, and Web of Science. Data were extracted from papers in which a tool was used to identify CMD in a South Asian older population (50+), including validation, adaptation, and use in epidemiology. Validation studies meeting the criteria were critically appraised using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies – version 2 (QUADAS-2) tool.

Results:

Of the 4694 papers identified, 176 met the selection criteria at full-text screening as relevant examples of diagnostic or screening tool use. There were 15 tool validation studies, which were critically appraised. Of these, 10 were appropriate to evaluate as diagnostic tests. All of these tools assessed for depression. Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)-based tools were predominant with variable diagnostic accuracy across different settings. Methodological issues were substantial based on the QUADAS-2 criteria. In the epidemiological studies identified (n = 160), depression alone was assessed for 82% of the studies. Tools lacking cultural validation were commonly used (43%).

Conclusions:

This review identifies a number of current research gaps including a need for culturally relevant validation studies, and attention to other CMDs such as anxiety.

Information

Type
Review Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© International Psychogeriatric Association 2021
Figure 0

Figure 1. PRISMA flowchart.

Figure 1

Table 1. Adaptations of HIC older age depression screening tools as index tests with a reference standard

Figure 2

Table 2. QUADAS-2: quality assessment and risk of bias in diagnostic accuracy studies

Figure 3

Table 3. Summary characteristics of epidemiological data studies using screening and diagnostic tools

Figure 4

Figure 2. Map showing the distribution of all studies included in the review across South Asia.

Supplementary material: File

Fotheringham et al. Supplementary Material

Fotheringham et al. Supplementary Material 1
Download Fotheringham et  al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 14.9 KB
Supplementary material: File

Fotheringham et al. Supplementary Material

Fotheringham et al. Supplementary Material 2
Download Fotheringham et  al. Supplementary Material(File)
File 63.9 KB