Background

The Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale (DASS) measures the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety and stress. Due to the large number of questions in the full DASS (42 questions), the DASS21 is administered. This comprises 21 questions which are rated on a scale of 0 to 3, where 0 = ‘did not apply to me at all’, 1 = applied to me to some degree, or some of the time’, 2 = ‘applied to me to a considerable degree, or a good part of the time’, or 3 = ‘applied to me very much, or most of the time’. Scores are multiplied by 2 to enable comparison with the full-scale DASS42 for which norms exist. For each subscale (Depression, Anxiety and Stress), the 7 items are summed and then multiplied by 2. The test developers suggest that at least 6 of 7 items should be complete for each sub-scale to be considered valid.

Clinical significance on each of the DASS subscales requires a change of 5 or more points coupled with a move to a different severity category (defined in the table below).

Severity band	Depression	Anxiety	Stress
Normal	0-9	0-7	0-14
Mild	10-13	8-9	14-18
Moderate	14-20	10-14	19-25
Severe	21-27	15-19	26-33
Extremely severe	28+	20+	34+

DASS questionnaire

Related data items