Discourse / Discours - Knowledge of Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Adolescents: Psychometric Analysis of Instrument

Abstract

The study evaluates the psychometric properties of the instrument Knowledge of Risk Factors for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Adolescents. T2DM is on the increase among adolescents and there are no instruments to assess knowledge of risk factors in this population. The author revised parts of an adult instrument and reviewed the items for content validity. The final instrument, comprising 11 items, was administered to 225 high-school students 13 to 19 years of age in the New York City area. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted using maximum likelihood estimation and geomin rotation. Two factors were extracted. The overall reliability of the scale was found to be acceptable at .76. The instrument appears to be a promising tool for the evaluation of knowledge of risk factors for T2DM in adolescents.