Validation of the Bangla version of Beck Depression Inventory-II

Background: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) is a widely used valid instrument to assess the severity of depression in clinical and normal settings. To meet the necessity of a standard scale for measuring depression among above 265 million Bangla speaking population around the world, this scale was translated and validated.

Methods: Two translations of BDI-II into Bangla were prepared, and then, two back translations were done by medical and language experts in parallel. Thereafter, sentence revision followed by pretest on 20 respondents was done to finalize the Bangla version of BDI-II (BDI-II BV). Afterward, a cross-sectional, comparative, and descriptive study was conducted to validate the scale by purposive sampling technique consisting of 111 persons (both clinical and normal) in three tertiary-level hospitals in Bangladesh. Everyone was given to fill up BDI-II BV at first. Then, they were given to fill up BDI-II BV (n = 49), Bangla version of Depression Anxiety Stress Scales 21-item (DASS21-BV, n = 47) and BDI-II (n = 25) 3-7 days later. The diagnosis of depressive disorder was made according to DSM-5. Correlation study and factor analysis were completed.

Results: The mean age was 28.83(±8.70) years. The male-female ratio was 1:0.82. Correlation of scores for BDI-II BV with the DASS21-BV depression subscale was .920; BDI-II BV with BDI-II was .985 (Cronbach's α .993; t test not significant) and BDI-II BV applied first and the second time was .960 (Cronbach's α .979; z test not significant). The interitem correlation for all the items was found highly significant (p < .01). Patients having depressive disorder or episodes had significantly higher BDI-II BV scores than normal (M + SD 30.18 + 10.127 than 8.34 + 5.910; p < .001). Partial confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated two-factor loading comprising Cognitive and Somatic-affective symptoms.

Conclusions: Through the translation and validation process, a validated Bangla version of BDI-II was produced to measure depression and its severity among the Bengali population.