Validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the diabetes knowledge test among in‐patients with type 2 diabetes

AIMS/INTRODUCTION: The diabetes knowledge test (DKT) is unavailable in Japan. In this study, we developed and evaluated a Japanese version of the DKT (J‐DKT) for in‐patients with type 2 diabetes before and after receiving diabetes education. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The J‐DKT contains 12 questions (0–12 points) to assess knowledge regarding diabetes, its complications, and diabetic nutrition therapy. During the median 10 days of hospitalization, 107 patients with type 2 diabetes received diabetes education (20 min private lessons every day from physicians, two nutrition counselling programs from dietitians, and a 2 h group session conducted by physicians, dietitians, and nurses). The J‐DKT was administered on admission and before discharge. To confirm the J‐DKT’s reliability, we assessed the internal consistency using Cronbach’s α (≥0.70 was considered acceptable). To evaluate its validity, we investigated changes in the J‐DKT total scores after the education programs and examined the differences in the scores among groups classified based on patient characteristics such as age, diabetes‐related hospitalization history, and hospitalization duration. RESULTS: The J‐DKT total scores increased from 5 to 8 (P ˂ 0.01) after the education programs. The J‐DKT before and after the program showed a Cronbach’s α of 0.48 and 0.73, respectively. Except for age, baseline characteristics such as history and period of hospitalization for diabetes were not associated with the J‐DKT scores after the education program. CONCLUSIONS: The validity and reliability of the J‐DKT after the diabetes education program were acceptable in this study.