Cardiac Depression Scale

Objective [edit | edit source]

Heart location.jpg

The Cardiac Depression Scale (CDS) was developed for the specific purpose of providing a valid and reliable instrument to measure depression in cardiac patients. The CDS is the only measure for depression derived from responses of cardiac patients. It offers a more responsive and sensitive alternative to other measures that are not always suitable for cardiac patients because they have been developed and validated in non-cardiac populations. The CDS is a 26 item questionnaire, each item requiring a response on a Likert scale from 1 (‘Strongly disagree’) to 7 (‘Strongly agree’), the scale being tagged at each end with an explanatory phrase.

Intended Population[edit | edit source]

The target population is cardiac patients with diagnosed cardiac diseases. The scale has been tested on following population

Method of Use [edit | edit source]

Equipment Required: Test paper and pencil 

General Instructions: The test requires no formal training and takes only 5 minutes to administer.The scale is of self report type, so patient is properly instructed to fill the scale ensuring proper scoring.

The Scale: The questionnaire consists of a number of statements about the way patient feel at present.
Next to each statement there is a rating scale from 1 to 7 for patient  to indicate how much you agree or disagree with the statement.

  • Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Strongly agree
  • The scale has 26 questions or statements for which patient marks from 1 to 7 and the final reading is taken.

Reliability and Validity: Whilst having 97% sensitivity and 85% specificity for diagnosing major depression, it also assesses the range of less severe ‘reactive’ depression. The interrater and the reliability has not been established. In a validation study done in UK for CDS, a battery of questionnaires (the Medical Outcomes Study Short-Form 36 [SF-36] Health Survey, the Beck Depression Inventory [BDI], the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale [HADS] and the Cardiac Depression Scale [CDS]) were used to find out the reliability of CDS.The results demonstrated high internal reliability  (Cronbach's alpha = 0.93) and an acceptable test-retest reliability (0.79). Concurrent validation against the SF-36, BDI and HADS demonstrated strong correlations. It was used in men recovering from CABG surgery. The result of showed Excellent correlation with Beck Depression Inventory (r = 0.751, 0.787, 0.737, 0.819) at baseline, 6, 12, and 36 weeks respectively.

Conclusion[edit | edit source]

The Cardiac Depression Scale is under copyright. Further information can be obtained from Dr. Samia Toukhsati at [email protected] or Professor David Hare at [email protected]

References
[edit | edit source]

Kiropoulos LA, Meredith I, Tonkin A, Clarke D, Antonis P, Plunkett J. Psychometric properties of the cardiac depression scale in patients with coronary heart disease. BMC psychiatry. 2012 Dec 3;12(1):1.

Chantal F.SKi, David.R.Thompson, David.L.Hare, Andrew.G.Stewart, Roger W. Cardiac depression scale: Moking scale in heart failure.Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2012; 10: 141. Published online 2012 Nov 23. doi: 10.1186/1477-7525-10-141