Validation of Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire (DKQ) in the Taiwanese Population — Concurrent Validity with Diabetes-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire Module

Abstract

Purpose

Diabetes knowledge is important for people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) to improve their health. Therefore, it is important to validate an instrument for assessing diabetes knowledge. The present study aimed to validate the 24-item Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire (DKQ).

Patients and Methods

The 24-item DKQ and Diabetes-specific Quality of Life Module (DMQoL) were administered to 425 patients (mean±SD age=58.4±11.6) with type 2 DM.

Results

The 24-item DKQ was first examined for its factor structure using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Items with low factors loadings were removed and 18 items were retained to make a DKQ-18. In DKQ-18, five factors were identified, which were named as diabetes etiology and symptoms (F1), intermediate nursing (F2), complications (F3), diet and treatment (F4), and elementary nursing (F5). The DKQ-18 had satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach’s α= 0.732 and McDonald’s ω=0.748), good known-group validity (participants with a higher level of education showed better score in DKQ-18; participants with HbA1c ≤7 had better score in DKQ-18 compared to group of HbA1c level >8.5), acceptable test–retest reliability (r=0.69), adequate responsiveness (DKQ-18 can detect knowledge change), and concurrent validity with DMQoL.

Conclusion

The DKQ-18 is a valid measure for assessing diabetes knowledge. The DKQ-18 could evaluate participants’ diabetes knowledge and improve their diabetes knowledge and self-care through a diabetes team and serve as a tool to evaluate the knowledge of participants with type 2 DM.

Keywords:

• diabetes mellitus
• knowledge
• diabetes care
• self-care
• psychometrics

Data Sharing Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, C-YL, upon reasonable request.

Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

Approval of this study was obtained from the National Cheng Kung University Human Research Ethics Committee (NCKU HREC-E-110-443-2). Moreover, the present study complies with the Declaration of Helsinki. All the participants provided a written informed consent.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Dr. Garcia for authorizing the validation of DKQ in Traditional Chinese and Dr. Hu for the study in Simplified Chinese.²³

Author Contributions

M-HH contributed to the following criteria: acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, drafted the first manuscript, and revised the manuscript during review process.

Y-CC contributed to the following criteria: acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, drafted the first manuscript, and revised the manuscript during review process.

C-HH contributed to the following criteria: conception, study design, execution, and critically reviewed the manuscript, including the manuscript revised during review process. C-YL contributed to the following criteria: conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, drafted and substantially revised the manuscript, and revised the manuscript during review process.

All the authors have agreed on submitting the paper to the Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity Targets and Therapy journal; reviewed and agreed on all versions of the article before submission; gave final approval of the version to be published; and agreed to take responsibility and be accountable for all aspects of the work and the contents of the article.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by (received funding from) the National Health Research Institutes (Grant No.: NHRI-11A1-CG-CO-04-2225-1).