Validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the Diabetes Knowledge Test among in-patients with type 2 diabetes.

AIMS /Introduction The diabetes knowledge test (DKT) is unavailable in Japan. In this study, we developed and evaluated a Japanese version of the DKT (J-DKT) for in-patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) before and after receiving diabetes education. MATERIALS AND METHODS The J-DKT contains 12 questions (0-12 points) to assess knowledge regarding diabetes, its complications and diabetic nutrition therapy. During the median 10 days of hospitalisation, 107 patients with T2D received diabetes education (20-min private lessons every day from physicians, two nutrition counselling programmes from dietitians and a 2-h group session conducted by physicians, dietitians and nurses). The J-DKT was administered on admission and before discharge. To confirm the J-DKT's reliability, we assessed the internal consistency using Cronbach's α (≥0.70 was considered acceptable). To evaluate its validity, we investigated changes in the J-DKT total scores after the education programmes and examined the differences in the scores among groups classified based on patient characteristics such as age, diabetes-related hospitalisation history and hospitalisation duration. RESULTS The J-DKT total scores increased from 5 to 8 (p ˂ 0.01) after the education programmes. The J-DKT before and after the programme showed a Cronbach's α of 0.48 and 0.73, respectively. Except for age, baseline characteristics such as history and period of hospitalisation for diabetes were not associated with the J-DKT scores after the education programme. CONCLUSIONS The validity and reliability of the J-DKT after the diabetes education programme were acceptable in this study.