The reliability and validity of the Diabetes Family Responsibility Questionnaire, in a sample of Swedish children with Type 1 diabetes and their parents

Abstract

Study background: The Diabetes Family Responsibility Questionnaire (DFRQ) is a self-report questionnaire developed to measure family sharing of responsibility for diabetes treatment tasks. The Swedish version of the DFRQ is currently being used in an ongoing family intervention study at The Queen Silvia Children´s hospital. Testing the reliability and validity of the instrument in a Swedish population is an important work in raising the quality of its contribution to research.

Aim: The overall aim of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of the DFRQ in a Swedish sample of children, mothers and fathers. A second aim was to bring fathers into the sample and to evaluate whether there are any differences in how mothers and fathers perceive family sharing of responsibility for diabetes treatment tasks.

Methods: 159 inhouse patients, 8-18 years, from two diabetes centres, and their parents, participated in the study. The DFRQ was administered by postal mail to the families. Internal consistency of the scale was measured with Cronbach’s alpha and its concurrent validity was evaluated using bivariate correlations. Independent t-tests were performed to test for differences between mother- and father reports. The study was reviewed and approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board.

Results: The Diabetes Family Responsibility Questionnaire exceeded the criteria for satisfactory internal consistency for the child-, mother- and father reports with a-values ranging from .87 to .90. Furthermore, children and parents reported that the child assumed greater responsibility for diabetes management tasks with increasing age, thus confirming concurrent validity of the instrument.

Conclusion: In summary the study concludes that the Swedish version of the DFRQ can be utilized as a valuable tool both in a research setting and in clinical practice.