The Whitney Observational Depression Index: Development and refinement of an observational tool for measuring depression

The Whitney Observational Depression Index (WODI) was developed by Dr. Fay Whitney and myself to use the observational powers of both formal caregivers (nurses) and informal caregivers (family members) who care for vulnerable populations (such as stroke survivors), among whom self-report measures of depression are unreliable or impossible to use. The WODI is a 59-item checklist with subscale scores and a total score, related to verbal, affective, physical, and vegetative signs of depression in the patient which can be observed by the caregiver and checked accordingly.;Our present data set consisted of 214 nurse-completed WODIs, as well as a longitudinal data set of WODIs completed by the family members caring for their stroke survivor at one month ;Results indicated that Nurse and Family WODI scores were significantly correlated with each other. A significant relationship was shown between Family WODI scores and scores on the BDI and GDS at all three assessments. Different response patterns for the Nurse and Family Members were revealed resulting in poor percent agreement, low kappa values, and discrepancy according to the McNemar test.;Exploratory Factor Analysis was completed on all four data sets and revealed six usable factors (alpha ;Discussion followed where reasons for these differences were presented. Also discussed were recommendations for changes in the WODI and ideas for further research using the instrument.