The Chinese Version of the Gotland Male Depression Scale (GMDS): Mokken scaling

•The Chinese version of GMDS is a good scale measuring male depression.•The Chinese version of GMDS has a weak property invariant item ordering.•The Chinese version of GMDS has both cumulative and hierarchical properties.

ObjectiveInvariant item ordering (IIO) is defined as the extent to which items have the same order for each respondent who completes a scale. IIO is crucial for establishing a scale hierarchy that is replicable across samples; however, no research has demonstrated IIO in the Gotland Male Depression Scale (GMDS). The aim of this study was to determine if an IIO hierarchy of depressive symptoms existed in a clinical sample of men who completed the GMDS.MethodsA convenience sample of 231 men (age: mean (SD) = 46.1 (11.0) yrs) who visited a men's health polyclinic in Taiwan and completed the GMDS. Mokken scale analysis was conducted to evaluate the psychometric properties of the GMDS.ResultsAll items on the GMDS formed a strong uni-dimensional scale (H=0.592). Except for item #9 (alcohol/drug abuse, or hyperactivity), IIO was found for the remaining 12 items (HT=0.366). These symptoms reflected the following hierarchy: positive family history (#13), complaining (#12), anxiety (#8), loss of vitality (#10), depressed mood (#11), indecisiveness (#6), aggression (#2), irritability (#5), stress (#1), burn-out (#3), fatigue (#4), and sleep problems (#7).ConclusionThe GMDS is a psychometrically sound measure of depressive symptoms in Taiwanese male outpatients. The GMDS has both cumulative and hierarchical properties.