The two-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2) meets the criteria for general screening of depression suggested by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. This study examined changes in the PHQ-2 over time, stratifying by receipt of mental health treatment, to help interpret screening results.

This project sub-task is a continuation of an earlier task order project (Contract Number 500-00-0024, Task 8) Health Disparities: Measuring Health Care Use and Access for Racial/Ethnic Populations (2005) intended to identify race/ethnic disparities in the use of selected Medicare covered services. This sub-task has two objectives. The first is to create and validate an acceptable measure of socioeconomic status (SES) that could be incorporated into further analyses of health care disparities among the racial/ethnic groups participating in the Medicare program. The second objective is to...