Conclusions

The purpose of the study was to assess the performance of a Short Diabetes Knowledge Instrument (SDKI) in a large multi-ethnic sample of older adults with diabetes and to identify possible modifications to improve its abil-ity to document diabetes knowledge. Research Design and Methods A sample of 593 African American, American Indian, and white female and male adults 60 years and older, with diabetes diagnosed at least 2 years prior, was recruited from 8 North Carolina counties. All completed an interview that included a 16-item questionnaire to assess diabetes knowledge. A subsample of 46 completed the questionnaire a second time at a subsequent inter-view. Item-response analysis was used to refine the instrument to well-performing items. The instrument consisting of the remaining items was subjected to analy-ses to assess validity and test-retest reliability. Results Three items were removed after item-response analysis. Scores for the resulting instrument were lower among minority and older participants, as well as those with lower educational attainment and income. Scores for test-retest were highly correlated. 508824 TDEXXX10.1177/0145721713508824Quandt et alDiabetes Knowledge research-article201