Recently, extensive research has been reported the higher rate of depression and anxiety among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) as compared to the general population. However, no single study has been carried out to investigate whether this disparity is a real difference or it happens due to lack of measurement invariance. This study aims to assess the measurement invariance of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and 10-item Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CESD-10) questionnaires across PLWHAs and healthy individuals. One hundred and fifty PLWHAs and 500 healthy individuals filled out the Persian version of the BAI and CESD-10 questionnaires. Multi-group multiple-indicators multiple-causes model (MG-MIMIC) was used to assess measurement invariance across PLWHAs and healthy people. Our findings revealed that PLWHAs and healthy individuals perceived the meaning of all the items in the BAI and CESD-10 questionnaires similarly. In addition, although depression scores were significantly higher in PLWHAs as opposed to the healthy individuals, no significant difference was observed in anxiety scores of these two groups. The current study suggests that the BAI and CESD-10 are invariant measures across PLWHAs and healthy people which can be used for meaningful cross-group comparison. Therefore, in comparison to healthy individuals, higher depression score of PLWHAs is a real difference. It is highly recommended that health professionals develop therapeutic interventions and psychological supports to promote the mental health of PLWHAs which alleviate their depressive symptoms.

中文翻译：

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评估10个项目的流行病学研究中心抑郁量表和Beck焦虑量表的测量不变性，涵盖艾滋病毒/艾滋病感染者和健康人群

最近，广泛的研究报道，与普通人群相比，艾滋病毒/艾滋病感染者（PLWHAs）的抑郁和焦虑发生率更高。但是，没有进行任何单独的研究来调查这种差异是真正的差异还是由于缺乏测量不变性而发生。这项研究旨在评估在PLWHA和健康个体中，贝克焦虑量表（BAI）和10项流行病学研究中心抑郁量表（CESD-10）问卷的测量不变性。一百五十名艾滋病病毒感染者和500名健康个体填写了波斯文版的BAI和CESD-10问卷。多组多指标多原因模型（MG-MIMIC）用于评估PLWHA和健康人之间的测量不变性。我们的发现表明，艾滋病感染者和健康个体对BAI和CESD-10问卷中所有项目的含义都具有相似的认识。此外，尽管PLWHAs的抑郁评分明显高于健康个体，但两组的焦虑评分没有显着差异。目前的研究表明，BAI和CESD-10是PLWHA和健康人群的不变指标，可用于有意义的跨组比较。因此，与健康个体相比，PLWHAs的较高抑郁评分是真正的差异。强烈建议卫生专业人员开发治疗干预措施和心理支持，以促进PLWHA的心理健康，从而减轻其抑郁症状。