ABSTRACT
Background: The Diabetes Mellitus 2 treatment adherence scale version III (EATDM-III) was devised in Costa Rica. Its seven factors are family support, community organization and support, physical exercise, medical control, hygiene and self-care and assessment of physical condition. Aim: To assess the psychometric properties of the scale in Chilean patients. Material and Methods: The results of the EATDM-III scale, applied to 274 patients with Diabetes Mellitus 2 aged 59 ± 11 years (59% women), were analyzed. Reliability, item, exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses were carried out both in the initial and the proposed model. Results: We propose a version of 30 items grouped in six dimensions, improving the fit indices obtained with the original scale. The review of item factor loadings shows that all are appropriate both in magnitude and statistical significance, with values between 0.46 and 0.93. Internal consistency measured by Cronbach s alpha, was 0.85 for the total scale. Conclusions: The adapted EATDM-III scale is reliable and can be used to assess treatment adherence in Chilean patients.