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Evaluation of the Cardiac Depression Visual Analogue Scale in a medical and non-medical sample
Mirella Di Benedetto1, Matthew Sheehan
1a School of Health Sciences, RMIT University , Melbourne , Australia .
Insights
The Cardiac Depression Visual Analogue Scale (CDVAS) effectively measures depressive symptoms in general medical patients. This brief, valid, and reliable tool aids in identifying depression in diverse healthcare settings.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Psychometrics
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Comorbid depression and medical illness negatively impacts patient outcomes, including medication adherence and mortality.
- There is a need for validated psychological instruments to detect depressive symptoms in medical environments.
- The Cardiac Depression Visual Analogue Scale (CDVAS) was developed for cardiac populations but requires validation in broader medical samples.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Cardiac Depression Visual Analogue Scale (CDVAS) in a general medical population.
- To assess the reliability and validity of the CDVAS for detecting depressive symptoms.
Main Methods:
- A sample of 117 participants completed the CDVAS, Cardiac Depression Scale (CDS), Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS), and a demographic/health questionnaire.
- Psychometric analyses included internal reliability, concurrent validity, discriminant validity, predictive validity, and principal components analysis.
Main Results:
- The CDVAS demonstrated adequate internal reliability (α = .76).
- Strong concurrent validity was found with the CDS (r = .89) and DASS depression sub-scale (r = .70).
- Principal components analysis confirmed a single-component structure, supporting construct validity.
Conclusions:
- The CDVAS is a short, simple, valid, and reliable measure for assessing depressive symptoms.
- The scale is suitable for use in general and medical patient samples.
- The CDVAS can aid in the detection of depression within diverse healthcare settings.
Abstract:
Comorbid depression and medical illness is associated with a number of adverse health outcomes such as lower medication adherence and higher rates of subsequent mortality. Reliable and valid psychological measures capable of detecting a range of depressive symptoms found in medical settings are needed. The Cardiac Depression Visual Analogue Scale (CDVAS) is a recently developed, brief six-item measure originally designed to assess the range and severity of depressive symptoms within a cardiac population. The current study aimed to further investigate the psychometric properties of the CDVAS in a general and medical sample. The sample consisted of 117 participants, whose mean age was 40.0 years (SD = 19.0, range 18-84). Participants completed the CDVAS, the Cardiac Depression Scale (CDS), the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) and a demographic and health questionnaire. The CDVAS was found to have adequate internal reliability (α = .76), strong concurrent validity with the CDS (r = .89) and the depression sub-scale of the DASS (r = .70), strong discriminant validity and strong predictive validity. The principal components analysis revealed that the CDVAS measured only one component, providing further support for the construct validity of the scale. Results of the current study indicate that the CDVAS is a short, simple, valid and reliable measure of depressive symptoms suitable for use in a general and medical sample.
