Concurrent Validity Of The Depression And Anxiety Components In The Bahasa Malaysia Version Of The Depression Anxiety And Stress Scales (DASS)

Objective:The Bahasa Malaysia (BM) version of Depression Anxiety Stress Scales 21-item (DASS-21) has been widely used ever since the establishment of its validity. To consolidate the evidence of the BM DASS-21 validity by examining its concurrent validity.Methods:The BM DASS was administered together with the Hospital Anxiety and Depressive Scale (HADS) to a total of 246 patients at International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Infertility Centre.Results:The anxiety domain of BM DASS-21 had good correlation with anxiety domain in HADS (0.61) but for DASS depressive domain, it had modest correlation with its respective domain in HADS (0.49).Conclusions:The results of this study further ensconced the evidence that the BM DASS-21 had relatively satisfactory psychometric properties for clinical subjects in Malaysia