Demographic differences in response rates for PHQ9 in a university student population

Objective: To examine differences in complete response rates for depression screening questions based on demographic characteristics. Methods: Cross-sectional study examining associations between demographic characteristics and completely responding depression-screening questions. Participants: "Healthy Minds Study" data, collected in a public University in February 2016, where 7,326 students participated. Results: women (AOR: 0.69; 95% CI =0.57-0.83) and gay/lesbian students (AOR: 0.24; 95% CI =0.10-0.60) had better complete response rates. Non-US (AOR: 1.46; 95% CI =1.03-2.07), black (AOR: 3.32; 95% CI =1.92-5.77), and Middle-Eastern students (AOR: 3.73; 95% CI =1.73-8.02) had lower complete response rates. Conclusions: Our study shows sex, gender, citizenship, and race categories have significant differences in complete response rates for the outcome. Our findings have several implications; including recognizing interventions for depression based on responders may not target those that tend to be "partial-responders". Efforts in survey design, recruiting and completion of surveys should be maximized.