Research article
Psychometric properties of the cardiac depression scale in patients with coronary heart disease
1 Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, 3010, Australia
2 Psychology Department, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Parkville, VIC, 3050, Australia
3 School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Monash Medical Centre, 246 Clayton Rd, Clayton, VIC, 3168, Australia
4 MonashHeart, Monash Medical Centre, 246 Clayton Rd, Clayton, VIC, 3168, Australia
5 Department of Medicine, Monash University, 246 Clayton Rd, Clayton, VIC, 3168, Australia
6 Cardiovascular Research Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, 3004, Australia
7 School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Monash Medical Centre, 246 Clayton Rd, Clayton, VIC, 3168, Australia
8 MonashHeart and Cardiovascular Research Centre, Monash Medical Centre, 246 Clayton Rd, Clayton, VIC, 3168, Australia
BMC Psychiatry 2012, 12:216 doi:10.1186/1471-244X-12-216
Published: 3 December 2012Abstract
Background
This study examined the psychometric properties of the Cardiac Depression Scale (CDS) in a sample of coronary heart disease (CHD) patients.
Methods
A total of 152 patients were diagnosed with coronary heart disease and were administered the CDS along with the Beck Depression Inventory- 2 (BDI-2) and the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) 3.5-months after cardiac hospitalization.
Results
The CDS’s factorial composition in the current sample was similar to that observed in the original scale. Varimax-rotated principal-components analyses extracted six factors, corresponding to mood, anhedonia, cognition, fear, sleep and suicide. Reliability analyses yielded internal consistency α - coefficients for the six subscales ranging from 0.62 to 0.82. The CDS showed strong concurrent validity with the BDI-II (r = 0.64). More patients were classified as severely depressed using the CDS. Both the CDS and the BDI-2 displayed significantly strong correlations with the STAI (r = 0.61 and r = 0.64), respectively.
Conclusions
These findings encourage the use of the CDS for measuring the range of depressive symptoms in those with CHD 3.5 months after cardiac hospitalization.
