Abstract
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.