Abstract
The Self-Care Inventory is a widely used measure to assess diabetes self-management behaviors. We sought to adapt and streamline the measure to reflect advances in diabetes management, including increased use of continuous glucose monitor and automated insulin delivery systems.
Through an expert-driven, iterative process, the Self-Care Inventory Short Form (SCI-SF) was created by modifying items to reflect modern diabetes management and reducing the measure to 8 items. The measure was administered to 369 adolescents with type 1 diabetes in 4 regions of the United States, at baseline of two separate intervention trials (mean age = 15.5 ± 1.5, 56 % female, 59 % non-Hispanic White) with measures of diabetes self-management and health-related quality of life. Data on adolescents' device usage and glycemic outcomes were also collected.
The SCI-SF demonstrated good reliability (α = 0.68 for the adolescent self-report version and 0.75 for the caregiver proxy version) and construct validity; it was significantly associated with other measures of diabetes self-management (Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire, percentage of time continuous glucose monitor was active), and criterion validity with diabetes-related quality of life, HbA1c, and time in range.
The updated, shortened SCI-SF is a reliable, valid measure for assessment of diabetes self-management behaviors in adolescents with type 1 diabetes.