ABSTRACTObjective: The self-management of the chronic illnesses including diabetes mellitus (DM) contributes directly to the optimum outcomes. The selfmanagementofpatients livingwith DMis essential toachieveoptimal glycemiccontrolandtoavoidor forestallthemyriadtomanage thelong-termnegativeconsequences.This studyaimed toassess psychometricpropertiesoftheMalaysianversionofperceiveddiabetesself-management scale(PDSMS).Methods: This cross-sectional study recruited 314 adult diabetes patients (≥18-years-old; DM Type 1 or 2) attending Endocrine Clinic at KualaLumpur Hospital, Malaysia from July 2014 to January 2015, for the period of 6-month. Permission was obtained from the corresponding authorto translate the English version of PDSMS to Malay language (M-PDSMS). The final version of the questionnaire was self-administered among thepatients living with DM after taking their consent before their participation in this study. Psychometric properties were evaluated using the classicaltest theory: Cronbach's alpha (α), intraclass correlation (ICC), and construct validity by principle component analysis and the modern test theory(MTT): Realtime item reliability, person reliability, and item construct validity.Results: M-PDSMS proved to be internally consistent with good Cronbach α values for both pilot and real study (α=0.69, 0.77), respectively. ICC (0.75)for 1-month test-retest reliability proved the stability of the items. While in MTT, the realtime item reliability values also surpassed the good reliabilityindex of 0.70 for both pilot (α=0.93) and real study (α=0.97).Conclusion: M-PDSMS proved to be a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess the perceived diabetes self-management among the Malaysian DMpatients. The findings of the study should be replicated in other states of Malaysia to ensure the retention of good reliability and validity profile.Keywords: Self-management, Diabetes, Perceived diabetes self-management scale, Reliability, Validity, Modern test theory, Classical test theory, Rasch
