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. 2025 Jun:224:112218.
doi: 10.1016/j.diabres.2025.112218. Epub 2025 Apr 30.

SCI - U: Validation of an updated Self-Care Inventory for contemporary diabetes management in adolescents with type 1 diabetes

Sarah S Jaser  1 , Tamim A Hamdan  2 , Marisa E Hilliard  3 , Joyce P Yi-Frazier  4 , Randi Streisand  5 , Faisal S Malik  4 , Daniel J DeSalvo  3 , Maeve B O'Donnell  6 , Annette M La Greca  7
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Free article

SCI - U: Validation of an updated Self-Care Inventory for contemporary diabetes management in adolescents with type 1 diabetes

Sarah S Jaser et al. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2025 Jun.
Free article

Abstract

Aims: The Self-Care Inventory is a widely used measure to assess diabetes self-management behaviors. We sought to adapt and streamline the measure to reflect advances in diabetes management, including increased use of continuous glucose monitor and automated insulin delivery systems.

Methods: Through an expert-driven, iterative process, the updated Self-Care Inventory (SCI-U) was created by modifying items to reflect modern diabetes management and reducing the measure to 8 items. The measure was administered to 369 adolescents with type 1 diabetes in 4 regions of the United States, at baseline of two separate intervention trials (mean age = 15.5 ± 1.5, 56 % female, 59 % non-Hispanic White) with measures of diabetes self-management and health-related quality of life. Data on adolescents' device usage and glycemic outcomes were also collected.

Results: The SCI-U demonstrated good reliability (α = 0.68 for the adolescent self-report version and 0.75 for the caregiver proxy version) and construct validity; it was significantly associated with other measures of diabetes self-management (Diabetes Self-Management Questionnaire, percentage of time continuous glucose monitor was active), and criterion validity with diabetes-related quality of life, HbA1c, and time in range.

Conclusions: The updated, shortened SCI-U is a reliable, valid measure for assessment of diabetes self-management behaviors in adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

Keywords: Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM); Measurement; Questionnaire Validation; Self-Care Behavior; Technology and Diabetes; Type 1 Diabetes.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Sarah Jaser reports financial support was provided by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Joyce Yi-Frazier reports financial support was provided by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Daniel DeSalvo reports a relationship with Dexcom that includes: consulting or advisory. Daniel DeSalvo reports a relationship with Insulet Corporation that includes: consulting or advisory. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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