Psychometric Properties of the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI)

Background: existing tools for assessing depression do not take into account its contextualized nature. One of the prevailing spheres of human activity is labor activity, which may cause the occurrence of depression associated with professional activity. Occupational depression is a depressive state associated with chronic work stress. Because occupational activity may be a significant factor in the development of depressive symptoms, the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) was developed to assess context-related depression, but it requires a comprehensive evaluation of its psychometric properties.

The aim of study was to systematically review the psychometric properties of the ODI based on existing research articles.

Materials and Methods: a systematic literature search and selection was conducted in the following databases: Lens.org, PubMed, OpenAlex, Crossref, Microsoft Academic, JSTOR, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar. 246 publications were retrieved for preliminary screening. After screening and validation against inclusion/exclusion criteria, 16 publications were selected assessing the psychometric properties of the ODI on a sample of a total of 17 290 respondents from 15 countries in 10 different languages.

Results: ODI is a valid and reliable tool for diagnosing work-related depression in many countries. The ODI demonstrates cross-cultural invariance, clinical relevance to current diagnostic standards, and functionality in different technical settings of psychological diagnosis.

Conclusion: the ODI is a promising tool for screening occupational depression in research practice. Studies of prognostic validity, test-retest reliability, and adaptation for different occupational groups are needed to expand clinical application.

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