ADAPTATION OF DIABETES KNOWLEDGE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR SOUTH ASIAN COUNTRIES CONTEXT

Objective: To adapt diabetes knowledge questionnaire (DKQ) which would be suitable for assessing diabetes knowledge of subjects with type 1 and type 2 diabetes of the South Asian region.Methods: For content validation of DKQ, Delphi survey of 111 opinion leaders was conducted during the South Asian Federation of Endocrine Societies (SAFES) summit in Hyderabad. The participants are endocrinologists, diabetologists, physicians, primary care physicians and researchers from India, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. Participants were asked to indicate their opinion on each of the 15 questions of DKQ as whether to include it in modified DKQ on five points Likert's scale. Participants were also requested to provide their critical comments for modification, opinion, and applicability of DKQ. The consensus was considered to be reached when 67% of participants indicated agree or strongly agree, comments regarding modification, opinion, and applicability of DKQ. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with IBM SPSS 19.0 version.Results: Final resultant modified DKQ comprises 13 multiple choice questions common in subjects with type-1 and type-2 diabetes, eg. blood glucose levels, diet, exercise, lifestyle, treatment, self-monitoring of blood glucose, sick day, complications, annual medical checkups; 4 multiple choice questions for subjects taking oral medication and/ or insulin only, eg. monitoring, hypoglycemia, traveling precautions, precautions for adverse drug / drug-drug reactions and 1 multiple choice question (sick day) for subjects with type 1 diabetes only.Conclusion: Modified DKQ can be utilized for evaluating diabetes knowledge outcome of subjects with diabetes of the South Asian region. Rigorous re-validation of modified DKQ will be carried out