The patient's experience of diabetes and its treatment: construction of an attitude scale by a semantic differential technique

An instrument for measuring attitudes towards diabetes and self-care was constructed by a semantic differential technique. The instrument contained nine adjective pairs. Factor analysis classified these into four factors: self-esteem/autonomy, object evaluation, quality of life supporting factor and self-strength/vulnerability. The reliability coefficient of test-retest by 28 nurses/nurse tutors was 0.93. Fifty diabetic patients completed the attitude scale for testing the validity of the instrument. Male patients had a more positive attitude towards diabetes than females. Those who had had diabetes for less than 10 years were more positive than those with a longer duration of the disease. A higher degree of education, well-performed self-monitoring of blood glucose and achievement of good metabolic control were all associated with a more negative attitude towards diabetes. A group of nurses/nurse tutors who also completed the attitude scale had a more negative attitude towards diabetes than the investigated groups of patients.