ABSTRACT
In a country like India with a large population, with diverse culture, socioeconomic status and educational levels, there is a need to translate a Patient Activation Scale Measure (PAM®13) into a regional language which will reduce the language barrier, increases the understanding of patient’s disease condition, and improves their self-management skills. Hence, a reliable and validated instrument ‘Patient Activation Measure (PAM®13)’ is used for evaluating patient’s awareness, skills, and trust in self-management of disease. We wanted to translate and validate the PAM®-13 questionnaire in Kannada language and assess activation levels in diabetes mellitus patients. METHODSA cross-sectional analysis done among 200 adults with diabetes mellitus who speak Kannada. Patients of diabetes mellitus, aged 18 - 85 years from both sexes were included in the study. The PAM®-13 – was translated as recommended by World Health Organisation’s procedure for cross-cultural validation and adaptation of self- report measures. This involved forward translation, synthesis, backward translation, pre-testing and the final version which was performed by the professionals of Kannada and English language. Data was analysed using SPSS ver. 24.0 for mean, median, standard deviation, Pearson’s correlation and Spearman’s correlation. Stata 14 was used to analyse internal consistency using Cronbach’s Alpha, inter-item, inter-rest, inter-test correlation. RESULTSWe found that the mean of the Kannada version of the PAM®-13 was 55.68. The level of internal consistency was good (α=0.8357). CONCLUSIONSPAM® -13 in Kannada language has been demonstrated to be a valid and reliable measure of patient activation in the diabetic population and the present study suggests good psychometric properties.