Developing and standardizing a tool to assess the health education needs of diabetic patients at Jazan Armed Forces Hospital

Abstract

Objectives To develop a tool for identification of health education needs of individuals living with diabetes in Jazan Armed Forces Hospital (JAFH) and to standardize the questionnaire by assessment of its reliability and validity. Methods A cross-sectional design was used in the present work, which included 303 participants living with diabetes. An expert panel in family medicine and endocrinology created a comprehensive and mutually exhaustive questionnaire that covered every potential area of health education needs. It included five socioeconomic questions and a 5-point Likert scale (15 items) to determine the participants' needs for health education. To assess the Likert scale's reliability, Cronbach's alpha was used. The exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the Likert scale's construct validity. Results The total number of males was 123 (40.6%) and that of females was 180 (59.4%). Their ages had a mean of 55.9 ± 12.9, ranging from 18 to 94 years. The reliability of the 15-item Likert scale was 83%, and it increased to 90% when the redundant items (n = 5) were eliminated. The test had 86% test-retest reliability when repeated. Also, the final 10-item Likert scale has significant face, content, and construct validity. Two components with Eigenvalues over one (generic knowledge about diabetes and diabetes and travel) could be extracted out of the 10-item Likert scale. Conclusion The final 10-item Likert scale offers a good degree of validity and reliability for determining the health education needs of individuals living with diabetes. The two Likert scale components and their contributing items were identified from the questionnaire, which is standardized and helpful in both practice and research, in order to ascertain patients' needs and develop structured health education programs.