title: Validity and reliability of the Greek version of the Diabetic Foot Ulcer Scale - Short Form (DFS-SF).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Diabetic foot ulcer is a critical and costly complication of diabetes mellitus. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Greek version of the diabetic foot ulcer scale - short form (DFS-SF).
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of patients with diabetic foot ulcer (N=110) was surveyed with the DFS-SF and various demographic and disease-related questions. The validated Greek SF-36 instrument was used as a "gold standard" for health-related quality of life comparisons. Hypothesized scale structure, internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha) and various forms of construct validity (convergent, discriminative, concurrent and known--groups) were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multitrait scaling confirmed the scale structure of the DFS-SF, with 32 excellent item convergence (100%) and good discrimination (84.1%) rates. Cronbach's alphawas >0.70 for all scales. Spearman's correlations between similar DFS-SF and SF-36 scales ranged between 0.39-0.79 (p<0.001). Expected interscale correlations and known-groups comparisons supported construct validity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The observed psychometric properties of the Greek DFS-SF imply suitability for assessing health-related quality of life in patients with diabetic foot ulcer. Future studies should focus on generalizability of the results, as well as on specific issues such as longitudinal validity and responsiveness.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Aristotelous 18, 26335, Patras, Greece. nkontodi@otenet.gr.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kontodimopoulos
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Aristotelous 18, 26335, Patras, Greece.
authors.forename: Anastasia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Veniou
authors.affiliation: First Department of Propedeutic Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Medical School, "Laiko" General Hospital, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tentolouris
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Aristotelous 18, 26335, Patras, Greece.
authors.forename: Dimitris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Niakas
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017719:Diabetic Foot / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires