The Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire (DSMQ): development and evaluation of an instrument to assess diabetes self-care activities associated with glycaemic control.
BACKGROUND
Though several questionnaires on self-care and regimen adherence have been introduced, the evaluations do not always report consistent and substantial correlations with measures of glycaemic control. Small ability to explain variance in HbA1c constitutes a significant limitation of an instrument's use for scientific purposes as well as clinical practice. In order to assess self-care activities which can predict glycaemic control, the Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire (DSMQ) was designed.


METHODS
A 16 item questionnaire to assess self-care activities associated with glycaemic control was developed, based on theoretical considerations and a process of empirical improvements. Four subscales, 'Glucose Management' (GM), 'Dietary Control' (DC), 'Physical Activity' (PA), and 'Health-Care Use' (HU), as well as a 'Sum Scale' (SS) as a global measure of self-care were derived. To evaluate its psychometric quality, 261 patients with type 1 or 2 diabetes were assessed with the DSMQ and an established analogous scale, the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities Measure (SDSCA). The DSMQ's item and scale characteristics as well as factorial and convergent validity were analysed, and its convergence with HbA1c was compared to the SDSCA.


RESULTS
The items showed appropriate characteristics (mean item-total-correlation: 0.46 ± 0.12; mean correlation with HbA1c: -0.23 ± 0.09). Overall internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was good (0.84), consistencies of the subscales were acceptable (GM: 0.77; DC: 0.77; PA: 0.76; HU: 0.60). Principal component analysis indicated a four factor structure and confirmed the designed scale structure. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated appropriate fit of the four factor model. The DSMQ scales showed significant convergent correlations with their parallel SDSCA scales (GM: 0.57; DC: 0.52; PA: 0.58; HU: n/a; SS: 0.57) and HbA1c (GM: -0.39; DC: -0.30; PA: -0.15; HU: -0.22; SS: -0.40). All correlations with HbA1c were significantly stronger than those obtained with the SDSCA.


CONCLUSIONS
This study provides preliminary evidence that the DSMQ is a reliable and valid instrument and enables an efficient assessment of self-care behaviours associated with glycaemic control. The questionnaire should be valuable for scientific analyses as well as clinical use in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients.
Research Institute of the Diabetes Academy Mergentheim (FIDAM), German Diabetes Center Mergentheim, Theodor-Klotzbücher-Strasse 12, Bad Mergentheim, Germany. schmitt@diabetes-zentrum.de
Andreas
A
Schmitt
Annika
A
Gahr
Norbert
N
Hermanns
Bernhard
B
Kulzer
Jörg
J
Huber
Thomas
T
Haak
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy*; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012648:Self Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*
D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin