Further psychometric testing of the Dutch Care Dependency Scale on two different patient groups

The Care Dependency Scale (CDS) is an instrument for assessing functional care demands of psychogeriatric nursing home patients. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the CDS can be used on institutionalized elderly people other than psychogeriatric nursing home patients. Therefore, data were gathered on two different populations: residential home patients and somatic (high care) nursing home patients. Psychometric evaluations of the CDS were carried out for each population separately. These data offer additional support for the reliability of the scale in terms of internal consistency and inter-item correlation. The measures among separate groups of nurses show fair to moderate agreement. The criterion-related validity of the instrument was investigated by studying the relationship between the CDS and four other instruments. One of the main outcomes of the study is that the CDS can be used appropriately in residential home practice and in somatic nursing home practice.