Translation, validation and effectiveness of self-care inventory in assessing adherence to diabetes treatment.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of an Urdu translation of Self Care Inventory for measuring adherence to diabetes treatment.

METHODS: The correlational cross-sectional study was conducted in October and November, 2011, and data was collected from outpatient department of public-sector hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Pakistan. Patients included had diabetes type1 or type 2, while those with severe diabetic complications, including nephropathy, neuropathy, diabetic foot, and renal disease or any psychiatric comorbidity, were excluded.

RESULTS: Of the 300 patients, 165(55%) were women. The overall age of the sample ranged between 19 and 72 years. The translated version of Self Care Inventory showed Chronbach's alpha ranging from 0.73 to 0.80 for four sub-scales, and 0.78 for the overall measure of adherence. In support of predictive validity, the inventory correlated negatively with fasting blood glucose level (r = -0.12 to -0.17; p<0.05) and positively with the problem areas in diabetes score (r= 0.15 to 0.24; p<0.01). Confirmatory factor analysis presented a good fit of the model to the data with all recommended items loading well on respective scales (lambda ranging from 0.42 to 0.86).

CONCLUSIONS: The self care inventory is an effective measure for assessing adherence to diabetes treatment. The Urdu version of the inventory appeared to be a valid and reliable instrument and is ready to be used in clinical and research setting.