Translation and validation of Malay version of the simplified diabetes knowledge test

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease which is highly prevalent in Malaysia. In managing diabetes, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) have advocated self-management to be the basic component of diabetes care. However, an ongoing discussion, education and assessment of the patient’s diabetic knowledge should be implemented in the patient’s empowerment process. There are various assessment tools available worldwide but very few are available in the Malay language. This study is aimed to perform the Malay translation of the Simplified Diabetes Knowledge Test (DKT) questionnaire and validate it. Methods: Forward-backward translation procedure was used to translate the simplified version of the DKT questionnaire. A total of 120 respondents with type 2 diabetes mellitus from a selected government health clinic were recruited to answer the questionnaire which consists of socio-demographic, diabetes characteristics and the 20-item Malay version of simplified DKT questionnaire. Reliability and construct validity were tested with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Exploratory Factor Analysis. Results: Factor analysis with Varimax rotation identified five meaningful domains for the final 18 items. The Cronbach’s alpha for the overall scale of the translated questionnaire was 0.573 with values of each five significant domain’s Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.370 to 0.564. Conclusion: The Malay version of simplified DKT is valid and reliable to be used as a brief assessment of knowledge among Malaysian diabetic patients