Validation of the Cardiac Depression Scale in a cardiac rehabilitation population.
OBJECTIVE
The current study was undertaken to provide further evidence supporting the reliability and validity of the Cardiac Depression Scale (CDS) in a population of cardiovascular patients.


METHODS
The CDS was administered to 627 consecutive ambulatory adult cardiac patients attending an outpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation program, and a subgroup also completed the Geriatric Depression Scale--Short Form (GDS-SF).


RESULTS
Factor analysis revealed six subscales accounting for 62% of scale variance. The CDS demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=.92) and correlation coefficient with the GDS-SF of .77. Receiver operating characteristic curves suggested a CDS cutoff score of 100 to detect more severe depression, and 90 to detect mild to moderate depression.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings encourage the continued use and evaluation of the CDS for measuring symptoms of depressive affect in cardiac patients.
Wise
Frances M
FM
Caulfield General Medical Centre, Melbourne, Australia. f.wise@cgmc.org.au
Harris
Darren W
DW
Carter
Lynn M
LM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D001014:Aortic Aneurysm / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000534:rehabilitation; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic