The Validity and Reliability of a Spanish Version of the Summary of Diabetes Self-care Activities Questionnaire

Background: Translation of data collection instruments, paying careful attention to equivalency between the source and the target language, is important to obtain valid data collection instruments.

Objective: To translate the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities (SDSCA) questionnaire (English) into Spanish and to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Spanish version.

Methods: Translation and back-translation were used to develop the Spanish version of the SDSCA. The Spanish version of the SDSCA was reviewed by an expert panel for conceptual and content equivalence to the English version. Psychometric properties were assessed further by combining data from three studies that used the Spanish version as a data collection instrument.

Results: Correlation of each item of the Spanish and English version of the SDSCA instrument ranged from .78 to 1.00, with no variability in the responses of 2 of the 12 items. Test-retest correlations for the SDSCA ranged from .51 to 1.00. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for the Spanish version was .68. Items loaded on three factors, with the factors accounting for 61% of the variance in SDSCA.

Discussion: The findings for the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the SDSCA questionnaire suggest that it has conceptual and content equivalency with the original English version and is valid and reliable. However, further testing with larger samples is required.