Linguistic and Psychometric Validation of the Thai Version of Simplified Diabetes Knowledge Scale: A Measure of Knowledge of Diabetes in a Thai Population

PURPOSE: To develop a linguistically and psychometrically validated Thai version of the Simplified Diabetes Knowledge Scale (T-SDKS) for adults with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was carried out among people with T2DM. METHODS: Consecutive sampling was undertaken to recruit participants at the outpatient diabetes clinic of a hospital in Northern Thailand. RESULTS: A total of 502 patients with T2DM were recruited. The mean age of the participants was 60.2 years, and 60.5% were female. The T-SDKS attained a reliability coefficient of .79. The item-total correlation value was greater than 0.20 for each item, and the inter-item correlation ranged between 0.03 and 0.49. Respondents attained a mean percentage knowledge score of 42.39% ± 15.45 on T-SDKS. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS: The T-SDKS has demonstrated to be a brief and simple diabetes knowledge assessment tool to use in a busy clinical setting. IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE: The findings can be used to improve health education interventions.