Validation of the Cardiac Depression Scale in a cardiac rehabilitation population

ObjectiveThe 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.MethodsThe 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).ResultsFactor analysis revealed six subscales accounting for 62% of scale variance. The CDS demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's α=.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.ConclusionThese findings encourage the continued use and evaluation of the CDS for measuring symptoms of depressive affect in cardiac patients.