Validation of the Filipino Version of the Diabetes Distress Scale for Adult Patients with Diabetes seen at the Outpatient Department of a Tertiary Government Hospital in Quezon City, Philippines

Abstract

Introduction. Caring for persons with diabetes involves a holistic approach. Addressing diabetes distress is crucial to achieve optimal health outcomes for persons with diabetes. This study aims to validate a Filipino version of the diabetes distress scale (DDS).  Methodology. We conducted forward and backward translations to construct a Filipino version from the validated English questionnaire. We performed statistical analysis to check internal consistency and validation and to correlate diabetes distress with glycemic control based on the subjects’ HbA1c levels.

Results. We included one hundred and seventy patients (170) seen at the Outpatient Diabetes Clinic in the analysis. Of the participants, 13 (7.6%) have Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM), while the rest have Type 2 (T2DM). We found physician distress (PD) to be significantly associated with having T1DM. All domains in the Filipino DDS showed good internal consistency, ranging from 0.81 to 0.85. We used factor analysis to extract four factors similar to the original diabetes distress scale. We did not find any significant correlation between diabetes distress and HbA1c level.

Conclusion. The Filipino DDS showed good internal reliability and had consistent results similar to the original diabetes distress scale. However, we did not find a significant correlation between diabetes-related distress and the HbA1c level.