DETERMINING THE CUT-OFF SCORE FOR A MALAY LANGUAGE VERSION OF THE CENTRE FOR EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDIES DEPRESSION SCALE (CESD)

Objective: the objective of this study is to determine the optimal cut-off score for the centre for epidemiologic studies depression scale (cesd) according to malaysian adolescent norms. methods: this is a cross-sectional study. nine hundred and thirty-one adolescents aged 13 to 17 years-old completed the cesd and hopkins symptom checklist-depression scale (hscl-depression). results: results from the receiver operating characteristic (roc) curve, kappa coefficients and odds ratio analysis showed that cesd cut-off score of 27 was suitable to be used according to malaysian norms, demonstrating a specificity of 93%. conclusion: the findings suggest a cut-off score 27 should be used for screening of depression for malaysian adolescents using the cesd.