Abstract
BackgroundPatient empowerment has recently been proposed as an important concept in self-management for effective glycemic control. A concise self-completed questionnaire for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus was created to comprehensively evaluate their empowerment on the basis of self-managed dietary/exercise behaviors, psychological impact, and family support. The reliability and validity of this short questionnaire were tested and factors relating to patient empowerment were analyzed.MethodsThe self-completed empowerment questionnaire was based on questionnaires for self-managed dietary and exercise behaviors, the Appraisal of Diabetes Scale, and the Diabetes Family Behavior Checklist. The questionnaire was trialed on 338 male and female patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who lived with family. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were investigated and stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was used to identify factors that affect patient empowerment.ResultsThe self-completed patient empowerment questionnaire included 13 questions on background data (e.g., age, gender, and HbA1c) and 18 questions within five scales to assess self-managed dietary behaviors, self-managed exercise behaviors, and psychological impact of diabetes, as well as positive and negative feedback in patient-family communication. The questionnaire showed sufficient internal consistency, construct validity, reproducibility, factorial construct validity, and concurrent validity. The results were generally satisfactory, and the questionnaire reflected the particular characteristics of treatment methods. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that patient empowerment was strongly affected by the number of disease-related symptoms, age, and gender.ConclusionsThe results suggest that the concise self-completed empowerment questionnaire developed here is useful for measuring the empowerment of individual patients and evaluating the impact of symptoms and therapies on empowerment.
Highlights
Patient empowerment has recently been proposed as an important concept in self-management for effective glycemic control
Current estimates suggest that as of 2013 there were 380 million patients with diabetes mellitus worldwide and that healthcare spending on this disease and its complications had risen to $548 billion [1]
Patients The patients enrolled in the study had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus at least 6 months previously
Summary
Patient empowerment has recently been proposed as an important concept in self-management for effective glycemic control. In Japan, healthcare professionals are attempting to educate patients on maintaining appropriate control of blood sugar levels by promoting behavioral changes based on the concept of better patient empowerment. Empowerment is both a process in which an educational intervention increases the learner’s ability to think critically and act autonomously and an outcome in which an enhanced sense of self-efficacy occurs as a result of the process [5]. We sought to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire for rapidly assessing empowerment
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