Development and Validation of a Type 2 Diabetes Self-Care Questionnaire

 Self-care is very important in controlling type 2 diabetes and the present study aimed to develop and validate a type 2 diabetes self-care questionnaire. 

 The present study was a series of consecutive exploratory experiments guided by the approach of testing and classification and was conducted qualitatively and quantitatively in two stages. The statistical population in the first stage consisted of specialists, physicians and researchers in the field of type 2 diabetes in 2020-2021 that 10 persons were selected by purposive sampling. In the second stage, 432 patients with type 2 diabetes in Tehran in 2020-2021 were selected by available sampling method and considering criteria. In order to collect the information of the first stage, an in-depth and semi-structured interview and a researcher-made initial questionnaire were used. 

 It showed that from the results of the interviews, 41 concepts were extracted by open coding in 4 main dimensions. ‌Content validity ratio index and content validity index were calculated and 4 factors were identified in the exploratory factor analysis. Finally, this 34-item questionnaire explained 58.76% of the variance of type 2 diabetes self-care in patients aged 30 to 60 years: factors related to health literacy (39.64%), psychological factors (11.82%), physical factors (4.19%) And factors related to access to facilities (3.11%). Also, the first-order confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the above 4 factors and a total alpha of 0.95 was obtained. 

 This questionnaire has good validity and reliability and its use is recommended for self-care monitoring of these patients and use in research.