Objective
The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QID-SR16), a self-report instrument based on the DSM-IV criteria that assesses the severity of depression symptoms, in the Brazilian population.

Method
Participants were 4.400 Brazilians over 15 years old recruited from an online survey assessing depressive symptoms during the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Internal consistency, construct validity and convergent and discriminant validity of the QIDS-SR16 were evaluated.

Results
The tested model was considered adequate to the data (CFI = 0.947, TLI = 0.927 and RMSEA = 0.051) and its internal consistency was good, with a cronbach's alpha of 0.71 and an average item correlation of 0.23. The correlations between the total score of the QIDS-SR16 and the total scores of the PHQ-9 instruments (r = 0.67, p <0.001), PCL-5 (r = 0.61, p < 0.001) and PROMIS (r = 0.60, p < 0.001) demonstrate good indicators of concurrent and convergent validity.

Conclusion
The psychometric properties of the QIDS-SR16 proved to be strong in terms of internal consistency, construct validity, and convergent and discriminant validity. The Portuguese version of QIDS-SR16 is an adequate instrument to assess depressive symptoms in the context of an online survey.