Paraplegia in a patient on warfarin treatment.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to culturally adapt the Family-Caregiver Diabetes Management Self-Efficacy Scale (F-DMSES) into Turkish and to evaluate its psychometric properties among family caregivers of adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM).

METHODS

This methodological study included 203 family caregivers of adults with T2DM who attended the internal medicine outpatient clinics of Şanlıurfa Training and Research Hospital. The cultural adaptation process included forward translation, expert review, back-translation, and assessment of comprehensibility. Content validity was evaluated using the Davis technique. Construct validity was examined using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and corrected item-total correlations. Temporal stability was assessed using test-retest correlations in a subsample of 30 caregivers who completed the scale twice at a two-week interval.

RESULTS

The Turkish F-DMSES demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties. Corrected item-total correlations ranged from 0.43 to 0.81. EFA supported the original four-factor structure, comprising general diet and blood glucose monitoring, weight control and physical activity, diet adjustment in different situations, and medication. The four-factor structure explained 81.59% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from 0.70 to 0.90 across the four subdimensions and were 0.90 for the total scale. The initial CFA model showed inadequate fit. Following the incorporation of theoretically justified correlated residuals between selected items, the modified four-factor model demonstrated improved overall model fit (χ²/df = 2.27, RMSEA = 0.079, GFI = 0.94, CFI = 0.91, IFI = 0.93), although the RMSEA remained slightly above the predefined criterion. Test-retest correlation coefficients for the total scale and subdimensions ranged from 0.85 to 0.97 (p < 0.001), indicating high temporal stability.

CONCLUSION

The findings provide evidence supporting the construct validity, internal consistency, and temporal stability of the Turkish version of the F-DMSES for assessing diabetes-management-related self-efficacy among family caregivers of adults with T2DM. Further studies involving larger and more diverse samples are warranted to cross-validate the factor structure and examine additional aspects of validity and responsiveness across different Turkish populations and clinical settings.