Diabetes Care, Vol 23, Issue 7 951-956, Copyright © 2000 by American Diabetes Association
Development and validation of a questionnaire to evaluate patient satisfaction with diabetes disease management
LE Paddock, J Veloski, ML Chatterton, FO Gevirtz and DB Nash
Office of Health Policy and Clinical Outcomes, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, USA. lisa.paddock@mail.tju.edu
OBJECTIVE: To develop a reliable and valid questionnaire to measure patient
satisfaction with diabetes disease management programs. RESEARCH DESIGN AND
METHODS: Questions related to structure, process, and outcomes were
categorized into 14 domains defining the essential elements of diabetes
disease management. Health professionals confirmed the content validity.
Face validity was established by a patient focus group. The questionnaire
was mailed to 711 patients with diabetes who participated in a disease
management program. To reduce the number of questionnaire items, a
principal components analysis was performed using a varimax rotation. The
Scree test was used to select significant components. To further assess
reliability and validity; Cronbach's alpha and product-moment correlations
were calculated for components having > or =3 items with loadings
>0.50. RESULTS: The validated 73-item mailed satisfaction survey had a
34.1% response rate. Principal components analysis yielded 13 components
with eigenvalues > 1.0. The Scree test proposed a 6-component solution
(39 items), which explained 59% of the total variation. Internal
consistency reliabilities computed for the first 6 components (alpha =
0.79-0.95) were acceptable. CONCLUSIONS: The final questionnaire, the
Diabetes Management Evaluation Tool (DMET), was designed to assess patient
satisfaction with diabetes disease management programs. Although more
extensive testing of the questionnaire is appropriate, preliminary
reliability and validity of the DMET has been demonstrated.