Development and validation of a Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes-specific patient-reported experience measure e-questionnaire: Diabetes reported experience measures (DREMS)

Introduction: Successful diabetes management is associated with an effective partnership between People with Diabetes (PwD) and healthcare professionals. Though possible to measure using Patient-Reported Experience Measures (PREMs), none are specific to Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes (T1D/T2D) and validated in French. Thus, we developed and validated the DREMS (Diabetes Reported Experience MeasureS) e-questionnaire. Methodology: DREMS is comprised of 18 items evaluating 5 different factors. Validation for use by PwT1D and PwT2D (recruited online) was performed using: Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA); Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Cronbach's Alpha. Test-retest reliability was evaluated through Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) in a subsample. Results: DREMS was tested by 2,513 respondents, including 942 PwT1D and 1,571 PwT2D. For both groups, EFA results indicated 18 items loaded substantially onto 5 clear factors. CFA showed all coefficients were significant in their respective factors. Goodness-of-fit, assessed using the Comparative Fit Index was >0.90 and by the RMSEA was <0.080. Cronbach's α for the entire DREMS e-questionnaire was ≥0.90. ICC was 0.87 for PwT1D (n = 136) and 0.74 for PwT2D (n = 169). Innovation: DREMS is the first validated French-language diabetes-specific PREM for both PwT1D and PwT2D and can be useful to evaluate and improve health care management and patient health.