Psychometric testing of the Heart Failure Screening Tool (Heart-FaST)

Background: The Heart Failure Screening Tool (HeartFaST) was developed to identify impairments in three functional domains (physical, cognitive and emotional functioning) that are barriers to patient engagement in heart failure (HF) self-care. Aim: To assess the construct validity of Heart-FaST. Methods: Heart-FaST was administered to 96 HF patients (age=69±12 years, 70%males). Higher scores on each domain indicate worse functioning: physical (1-3), cognitive (0-20) and emotional (7-49). Convergent validity of the three HeartFaST domains was examined via correlations with tools measuring comparable constructs: Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) and physical and emotional components of the SF12. Results:According to theHeart-FaST assessment, 30 (33%) patients were classified as having lower physical functioning, 51 (56%) lower cognitive functioning and 28 (31%) lower emotional functioning. Moderate correlations were found between: thephysicaldomainof theHeart-FaSTand thephysical component of the SF-12 (r=.42, p < 0.01) and the mental component of the SF-12 (r=.31, p = 0.01); the cognitive domain of the Heart-FaST and the MMSE score (r=.43, p=0.01); and the emotional domain of the Heart-FaST and the emotional component of the SF-12 (r=.33, p=0.01). Conclusion: Preliminary analyses support the construct validity of the Heart-FaST as a screening tool for physical, cognitive and emotional barriers to patient engagement in HF self-care. Further psychometric analysis of Heart-FaST domains, including Rasch analysis, is in process.