Abstract
Patients with chronic medical conditions such as diabetes mellitus need to self-manage their condition for optimal outcomes. The degree to which patients with diabetes feel competent or self-efficacious in managing their diabetes has been related to behaviors such as dieting or exercise as well as to indicators of glycemic control. A diabetes-specific adaptation of the Perceived Medical-Condition Self-Management Scale was administered to 398 patients with either type 1 (n = 57) or type 2 (n = 341) diabetes. Cronbach’s alpha of the 8-item Perceived Diabetes Self-Management Scale (PDSMS) was .83 indicating internal consistency. PDSMS scores were uncorrelated with age, years since diagnosis, and years of schooling, but were negatively correlated with body mass index. Those with type 1 DM had higher PDSMS scores than those with type 2 DM. PDSMS scores were positively correlated with a number of self-reported self-care activities and negatively related to measures of glycemic control. The PDSMS is a valid measure of diabetes self-efficacy, and the more generic template from which it was adapted can easily be altered for use with other chronic medical conditions.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Because the terms “self-efficacy” and “perceived competence” are used interchangeably in the literature, in the remainder of this article we will refer to the construct by the more common term “self-efficacy”
See the article by van der Bilj et al., 1999, for a comprehensive list of references
Previous similar unpublished analyses with the Perceived Health Competence Scale showed that the only two factors to emerge corresponded to whether or not the item was “negatively” worded
Dropping item 1 would increase alpha from .834 to .835, or dropping item 2 would increase alpha to .837
To date, the template instrument has also been validated in samples of persons with HIV/AIDS or a variety of rheumatological conditions
References
Anderson, R. M. (1985). Is the problem of non-compliance all in our heads? Diabetes Educator, 11, 31–36.
Anderson, R. M., Fitzgerald, J. T., Gruppen, L. D., Funnell, M. M., & Oh, M. S. (2003). The diabetes empowerment scale-short form (DES-SF). Medical Care, 26, 1641–1642.
Anderson, R. M., Funnell, M. M., Fitzgerald, J. T., & Marrero, D. G. (2000). The diabetes empowerment scale: A measure of psychosocial self-efficacy. Diabetes Care, 23, 739–743.
Arnold, R., Ranchor, A. V., DeJongste, M. J., Koeter, G. H., TenHacken, N. H., Aalbers, R., & Sanderman, R. (2005). The relationship between self-efficacy and self-reported physical functioning in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic heart failure. Behavioral Medicine, 31, 107–15.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W. H. Freeman.
Bradburn, N. M., Sudman, S., Blair, E., & Stocking, C. (1978), Question threat and response bias. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 42, 221–234.
Iannoti, R. J., Schneider, S., Nansel, T. R., Haynie, D. L., Plotnick, L. P., Clark, D. O., & Simons-Morton, B. (2006). Self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and diabetes self-management in adolescents with type 1 diabetes. Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 27, 98–105.
Rothman, R. L., Davis, D., Gregory, B., Wallston, K., Sparks, J., Cherrington, A., DeWalt, D., Malone, R., Pignone, M., & Elasy, T. (2006). Diabetes numeracy skills and relationship to glycemic control. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(Suppl 4), 35.
Samuel-Hodge, C. D., DeVellis, R. F., Ammerman, A., Keyserling, T. C., & Elasy, T. A. (2002). Reliability and validity of ameasure of perceived diabetes and dietary competence in African American women with type 2 diabetes. The Diabetes Educator, 28, 979–988.
Schwarzer, R. (1992). Self-efficacy: Thought control and action. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Smith, M. S., Wallston, K. A., & Smith, C. A. (1995). The development and validation of the perceived health competence scale. Health Education Research, Theory & Practice, 10, 51–64.
Talbot, F., Nouwen, A., Gingras, J., Gosselin, M., & Audet, J. (1997). The assessment of diabetes-related cognitive and social factors: The multidimensional diabetes questionnaire. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 20, 291–312.
Toobert, D. J., Hampson, S. E., & Glasgow, R. E. (2000). The summary of diabetes self-care activity measure: Results from 7 studies and a revised scale. Diabetes Care, 23, 943–949.
van der Bilj, J., van Poelgeest-Eeltink, A., & Shortridge-Baggett, L. (1999). Psychometric properties of the diabetes management self-efficacy scale for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 30, 352–359.
Wallston, K. A. (1989). Assessment of control in health-care settings. In A. Steptoe, & A. Appels (Eds.) Stress, Personal Control, and Health (pp. 85–105). Chichester, England: Wiley.
Williams, G. C., Freedman, Z. R., & Deci, E. L. (1998). Supporting autonomy to motivate glucose control in patients with diabetes. Diabetes Care, 21, 1644–1651.
Acknowledgements
Data for this article were collected under the auspices of grants from the American Diabetes Association (Novo Nordisk Clinical Research Award), the Pfizer Clear Health Communication Initiative, and the NIH/NIDDK (DK20593 P&F 6) to Russell Rothman. Dr. Rothman is also the current recipient of an NIH/NIDDK Career Development Award (K23 DK065294). At the time of data collection, Dr. Cherrington was on the faculty of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The authors would like to thank Marlon Fielder and Rachel Garton for their assistance in collecting the data. A preliminary version of these findings was presented in a poster session at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego, CA in June, 2005.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wallston, K.A., Rothman, R.L. & Cherrington, A. Psychometric Properties of the Perceived Diabetes Self-Management Scale (PDSMS). J Behav Med 30, 395–401 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-007-9110-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-007-9110-y