title: The Care Dependency Scale: an assessment instrument for elderly patients in German hospitals.
abstract: The purpose of the study was to examine aspects of reliability and validity of the German version of the Care Dependency Scale (CDS), a Dutch assessment instrument originally developed for demented and mentally handicapped patients. Data of 1806 patients, 60 years or older from a larger sample, collected in 11 hospitals in Germany, were analyzed. Reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha, showing a very good result with a value of.98. Criterion related validity was examined by comparing the data of the CDS with the German nursing personal regulation. The scores of the CDS correlate to the scores of the personal regulation. The study shows further that most elders are fairly independent and care dependency increases with age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing Science, Centre for the Humanities and Health Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lohrmann
authors.forename: Ate
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dijkstra
authors.forename: Theo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dassen
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D005851:Geriatric Nursing; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires