Validity and reliability study of The Turkish version of the diabetes foot self-care behavior scale

Aim: This study aims to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Diabetes Foot Self-Care Behavior Scale (DFSBS). Methodology: This methodological study included 330 patients who had been receiving treatment since they were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and who were admitted to the Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases Clinic at Gaziantep University Şahinbey Research and Application Hospital between June and December 2016. Approvals from the ethical committee, the developer of the scale, and the institutions, as well as written consent of the participants were obtained before the study was started. The data were collected using a sociodemographic characteristics form and the Turkish version of the DFSBS. Data were analyzed using correlation analysis for validity and reliability analyses of the scale, the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient, Kendall's W test, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test, Barlett's test, and exploratory factor analysis methods. Results: The language validity of the scale was conducted through translation and back-translation. The content validity of the scale was consistent with the opinions of the experts (Kendall's coefficient W = 0.38, p <0.005). The item-total score correlation coefficients of the 7 items of the Turkish version of the DFSBS were 0.27-0.88. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.84 for the whole scale. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy was 0.776. This value was greater than 0.70, which is regarded as critical. The Barlett Globality Test score calculated for the same data was 1334.578, and this was significant (p <0.001). The mean score of the patients with type 2 diabetes who had diabetic foot complications was 23.89 ± 6.37. Results: The DFSBS can be used as a valid and reliable tool for the evaluation of foot self-care behaviors in diabetic patients who have diabetic foot complications. Keywords: patients with type 2 diabetes, validity and reliability, diabetic foot, self-care