A STUDY OF THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE "ELDERLY DIABETES BURDEN SCALE" FOR THE TURKISH SOCIETY

Introduction: This study was realized methodologically with the objective of examining the validity and reliability of the "Elderly Diabetes Burden Scale", which was developed in 2003 by Araki and Ito, to determine the burdens stemming from diabetes mellitus in elderly individuals with diabetes, for the Turkish society. Materials and Method: In the study, based on the fact that the size of the sampling in validity and reliability studies should be a minimum of five-fold and moreover, ideally ten-fold the number of items, 230 elderly diabetics were contacted for the 22-item "Elderly Diabetes Burden Scale". Results: At the end of the factor analysis applied to the scale, 6 factors were obtained, which explored 74.8% of the total variance of the scale. The Cronbach's alpha value was found to be 0.92 for the internal consistency of the scale and this value shows that the scale is highly reliable. Conclusion: In conclusion, "Elderly Diabetes Burden Scale" measuring instrument has been found as reliable and valid for the Turkish society.