Psychometric validation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 in Chinese adolescent and adult psychiatric inpatient populations

The findings of this study validate the structural validity and diagnostic validity of the PHQ-9 among Chinese adult psychiatric inpatients, while emphasizing that the interpretation of its factor structure in the adolescent population requires caution. The age-related symptom topological patterns indicated by network analyses are highly likely to be influenced by the insufficient size of the adolescent sample and need to be confirmed by subsequent studies. The results of the ROC curve highlight the clinical significance of formulating population-specific diagnostic cutoffs; however, the impact of comorbidity on the findings of this study must be taken into consideration.