Abstract
The Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities Measure (SDSCA), the measurement scale for self-care behaviors of diabetic patients, consists of the questionnaires concerning dietary behaviors, motor exercise, self-monitoring of blood glucose levels, drug management including insulin injection therapy, foot-care, and smoking, and has been widely used in the United States. In Japan, however, because of the lack of the clinically useful measurement scale like the SDSCA, the self-care behaviors of diabetic patients have never been wholly evaluated. In this study, we assessed the validity and reliability of the Japanese translated the SDSCA (J-SDSCA). First, we confirmed the content validity of the J-SDSCA by six diabetologists and two diabetic patients. Next, we applied the J-SDSCA to measure the behaviors of 247 Japanese diabetic patients and to assess the concurrent validity, the internal consistency, and the stability of the J-SDSCA after 3 months. The concurrent validity of the J-SDSCA for “dietary behaviors” was related with the “Yasukata's Diet Self-Care Measure”, which is widely used in Japan (r=0.74). The internal consistency (r=0.23-0.86) and stability of measurement (r=0.44-0.76) of the J-SDSCA were moderate, and the levels of both were showed same as those of levels to the original SDSCA. These findings indicate that the J-SDSCA is valid, reliable, and easy to use as compared with existing various measurement scales. Thus, in Japanese patients, the J-SDSCA may be clinically useful to evaluate synthetically various self-care behaviors of diabetic patients in the constant standards.
