Are we overestimating the prevalence of depression in chronic illness using questionnaires? Meta-analytic evidence in obstructive sleep apnoea.

Overall, these data suggest that when using depression questionnaires to assess the prevalence of depression in OSA, questionnaires that have a lower proportion of symptom overlap between OSA and depression, as well as a higher proportion of anhedonia symptoms, reduce the likelihood of overestimating the prevalence of depression in OSA. This study has implications for other chronic illnesses with symptom overlap with depression, for example diabetes, chronic kidney disease, or heart disease, as well as suggesting that depression questionnaires are not equally appropriate for assessing depression symptomatology in chronic illness populations.