A Malayalam Questionnaire for the Assessment of Knowledge regarding Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is common in Kerala. Recent data indicates that 27% of the population ≥30 years have diabetes. Patient education is a key element in the treatment of diabetes. Assessment of diabetes knowledge is important for effective good treatment. For the assessment of diabetes knowledge, validated tools are essential. While such tools exist for English speaking patients, there are few validated and published tools in Malayalam for assessing diabetes knowledge. One method for developing a questionnaire is to select a validated, published questionnaire in another language, translate it into Malayalam and re-test it. We report the development of a Malayalam Questionnaire for the assessment of diabetes knowledge. We selected the previously validated Diabetes Knowledge Questionnaire -24 (DKQ 24), developed in English and Spanish; translated it and undertook reliability testing. Keywords: Diabetes, Patient knowledge, Malayalam questionnaire, Validated tools, DKQ24 and reliability testing