Commentary: The validity and reliability of the Indonesian version of the Diabetes Mellitus Self-Efficacy Scale (DMSES-I)

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart attacks and stroke, cancers, chronic respiratory illness and diabetes are a major source of disability, death and despair across the globe.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this is especially so in low-and middle-income countries where over 31 million, or three-quarters of all NCD deaths occur.More local to this author's jurisdiction, NCDs account for 80% of the disease burden in the European Union (EU) and are the leading causes of avoidable premature death.This is indeed a startling figure and represents a significant socioeconomic and personal cost in terms of reduced years of life and life in years.But more than simply startling, the sad fact is that many of these deaths are avoidable, or at the very least potentially preventable.The chronic nature of most NCDs means there is ample opportunity over perhaps many years for intervention, amelioration, stabilisation and possible recovery.Certainly, reducing the burden of NCDs requires a holistic and whole system approach including activities that promote health and prevent disease, which can, according to the EU, account for a reduction of up to 70%.This paper examines the validity and reliability of the Indonesian version of the Diabetes Mellitus Self-Efficacy Scale (DMSES-I).Setting the context for the study, the authors note the increasing prevalence of Type II Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) in Indonesia and its establishment as the third leading cause of death in this jurisdiction.They contend that while nurses are well placed to offer self-management education to patients with T2DM, a pre-requisite for successful selfmanagement education is determining the patients' level of self-efficacy.However, currently there is no reliable and rigorous tool in Indonesia to do this.Using a cross-sectional design, the authors recruited two groups of volunteers from two private hospitals to, respectively, pre-test and pilot (n = 36), and psychometrically test (n = 227) the adapted DMSES scale (Van Der Bijl et al., 1999).