Background According to the World Health Organization, the alarming increase in rates of depression globally has become a serious concern. In 2010, the prevalence rate of depression in South Africa was 4.6%. Given the context of South Africa where the majority of the population have limited access to healthcare facilities and 59.3% of the population have access to the Internet, an online depression screening tool would have much to offer. Objective To determine whether online depression screening tools would be suitable for use in South Africa. Methods This study presents a systematic review of online depression screening tools to determine whether one would be suitable for use in South Africa. Articles were accessed from seven electronic databases from 1970 to 2018. All articles included in the review were critically appraised. Results A total of 17 articles met the inclusion criteria. From the results, there was only one screening tool available on an open access platform for use by the general population. The most common depression online screening tools were the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Center for Epidemiology Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). It was also evident that there were negligible differences in the psychometric properties of online versus paper versions of the online screening tools. Furthermore, there were very few studies that considered the African or South African population and no online screening tools for major depressive disorder (MDD) developed in these contexts. Conclusion There appears to be a need for a depression screening tool to be adapted for online usage in South Africa. It is recommended that the online screening tool should be adapted from the three commonly used online depression screening tools: PHQ-9, CES-D and BDI-II.

中文翻译：

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对在南非使用的在线抑郁症筛查工具的系统评价。

背景 据世界卫生组织称，全球抑郁症发病率的惊人增长已成为一个严重问题。2010年，南非抑郁症患病率为4.6%。鉴于南非的大多数人口无法使用医疗保健设施，而 59.3% 的人口可以使用互联网，因此在线抑郁症筛查工具可以提供很多帮助。目的 确定在线抑郁症筛查工具是否适合在南非使用。方法 本研究对在线抑郁症筛查工具进行了系统评价，以确定是否适合在南非使用。从 1970 年到 2018 年，从七个电子数据库中访问了文章。评论中包含的所有文章都经过了严格的评价。结果共有17篇文章符合纳入标准。从结果来看，在开放访问平台上只有一种筛查工具可供普通人群使用。最常见的抑郁症在线筛查工具是贝克抑郁量表-II (BDI-II)、流行病学研究中心抑郁量表 (CES-D) 和患者健康问卷 (PHQ-9)。同样明显的是，在线筛查工具的在线版本与纸质版本的心理测量特性之间的差异可以忽略不计。此外，很少有研究考虑到非洲或南非人口，也没有在这些背景下开发出针对重度抑郁症 (MDD) 的在线筛查工具。结论 似乎需要一种适用于南非在线使用的抑郁症筛查工具。