concurrent and predictive validity of the depression anxiety stress scale-21 in multiple sclerosis: a cross-sectional study with controlling the confounding factors

Background: the assessment of psychological symptoms in multiple sclerosis (ms) patients could play a key role in identifying the adverse effects of the disease. objectives: this study aimed to assess the concurrent and predictive validity of the depression anxiety stress scale21 (dass21) in patients with ms. methods: in a cross‐sectional study in 2010, 162 patients were selected by a consecutive method. depression anxiety stress scales21 (dass-21), the fatigue severity scale (fss), and the short-form health survey (sf-36) questionnaire were used in this study. data were analyzed using pearson’s correlation coefficient and multivariate hierarchical regression analyses. results: the findings of the present study revealed that dass21 subscales have a strong correlation with the constructs of fatigue and sf36 components (r = 0.29 to 0.71; p< 0.01). in addition, each of the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress independently predicted a significant proportion of the variance in the scores on fatigue and eight aspects of health (p ≤ 0.006) even after controlling the confounding factors. conclusions: the present study has highlighted the concurrent and predictive validity of dass-21 in ms. thus, this study suggests that therapeutic interventions for reducing psychological symptoms can lead to an improvement in different dimensions of health.