Psychometric testing of the Care Dependency Scale in patients with heart failure and their caregivers.

The scale shows acceptable validity and reliability and can be useful for care dependency assessment of patients with HF and their informal caregivers. Further research is needed for assessing the validity and reliability in other cross-cultural settings. The use of the CDS has the potential to effectively enable the development of pertinent care plans, taking dependency into consideration including the perspective of both members of the dyad as a whole.