The summary of diabetes self-care activities measure: results from 7 studies and a revised scale.

TLDR

The study reviews reliability, validity, and normative data from 1,988 diabetes patients across seven studies and proposes a revised SDSCA measure. The authors used the SDSCA self‑report questionnaire, collecting normative data, reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change across seven studies (five randomized interventions and two observational studies). The SDSCA demonstrated high inter‑item correlations, moderate test‑retest reliability, and modest validity correlations, confirming it as a brief, reliable, and valid self‑report tool for diabetes self‑management; the revised version is recommended for use.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To review reliability, validity, and normative data from 7 different studies, involving a total of 1,988 people with diabetes, and provide a revised version of the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (SDSCA) measure. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The SDSCA measure is a brief self-report questionnaire of diabetes self-management that includes items assessing the following aspects of the diabetes regimen: general diet, specific diet, exercise, blood-glucose testing, foot care, and smoking. Normative data (means and SD), inter-item and test-retest reliability, correlations between the SDSCA subscales and a range of criterion measures, and sensitivity to change scores are presented for the 7 different studies (5 randomized interventions and 2 observational studies). RESULTS: Participants were typically older patients, having type 2 diabetes for a number of years, with a slight preponderance of women. The average inter-item correlations within scales were high (mean = 0.47), with the exception of specific diet; test-retest correlations were moderate (mean = 0.40). Correlations with other measures of diet and exercise generally supported the validity of the SDSCA subscales (mean = 0.23). CONCLUSIONS: There are numerous benefits from standardization of measures across studies. The SDSCA questionnaire is a brief yet reliable and valid self-report measure of diabetes self-management that is useful both for research and practice. The revised version and its scoring are presented, and the inclusion of this measure in studies of diabetes self-management is recommended when appropriate.