Validation of Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire (DKQ) in the Portuguese Population

Introduction: Diabetes is a chronic disease that is assuming worrying proportions considering the epidemiological data and the clearly negative impact which causes in our societies. So, is necessary to take steps towards improving the quality of services, is essential to know the reality, identifying the points where it is necessary to redefine strategies. Being the knowledge that users with diabetes have about their disease an essential outcome for proper self-care and disease control, it is justified to be assessed the level of knowledge of this population and such that there are calibrated instruments and with quality for this purpose. Objective: To determine the psychometric characteristics of DKQ-24 scale (Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire-24) for the sample in question; Knowing the level of knowledge of users with diabetes followed by a Health Centers grouping in Portugal. Methods: Based on the question 'What knowledge have the users with diabetes about the disease? "we developed two studies: an initial one of revalidation of the data collection instrument (a); and a second descriptive study (b) about the level of knowledge of users with diabetes on the various areas of relevance associated with self-management of the disease.To conduct the research work we applied a questionnaire interview which consists of a part related to sociodemographic and clinical data and a second part consisting of the DKQ-24 instrument that evaluates knowledge about diabetes and that was validated by Bastos (2004) to Portugal and revalidated by us for the sample under study (292 users with diabetes followed in basic health care). Results: DKQ-24 scale has a total  value of 0.863, showing a good internal consistency. Most users missed the answers about the disease causality and hypoglycemia signs and revealed ignorance about where insulin is produced, monitorization of blood glucose levels, the effect of exercise in controlling diabetes and hyperglycemia signals.Conclusion: We concluded that is urgent the investment in the improvement of relevant results for the control of diabetes, particularly in the knowledge that the user has about his disease, as these are the basis for self-management that assumes a central role in this chronic disease.