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Self-Management 

Resource Center 

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Self-Efficacy for Diabetes 

We would like to know how confident you are in doing certain activities. For each of the following 

questions, please choose the number that corresponds to your confidence that you can do the tasks 

regularly at the present time. 

1. How confident do you feel that you 

can eat your meals every 4 to 5 not at all | | | | | | | | | | totally hours every day, including confident 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 confident 

breakfast every day? 

2. How confident do you feel that you 

can follow your diet when you have to not at all | | | | | | | | | | totally prepare or share food with other confident 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 confident 

people who do not have diabetes? 

3. How confident do you feel that you 

can choose the appropriate foods to 

not at all | | | | | | | | | | totally eat when you are hungry (for example, confident 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 confident 

snacks)? 

4. How confident do you feel that you can 

not at all | | | | | | | | | | totally exercise 15 to 30 minutes, 4 to 5 times a 

confident 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 confident week? 

5. How confident do you feel that you 

not at all | | | | | | | | | | totally can do something to prevent your confident 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 confident blood sugar level from dropping 

when you exercise? 

6. How confident do you feel that you 

know what to do when your blood not at all | | | | | | | | | | totally sugar level goes higher or lower confident 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 confident 

than it should be? 

7. How confident do you feel that you 

can judge when the changes in your not at all | | | | | | | | | | totally illness mean you should visit the confident 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 confident 

doctor? 

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8. How confident do you feel that you 

can control your diabetes so that it not at all | | | | | | | | | | totally does not interfere with the things confident 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 

you want to do? 

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Scoring 

The score for each item is the number circled. If two consecutive numbers are circled, code the lower number 

(less self-efficacy). If the numbers are not consecutive, do not score the item. The score for the scale is the 

mean of the six items. If more than two items are missing, do not score the scale. Higher number indicates 

higher self-efficacy. 

Characteristics 

Tested on 186 subjects with diabetes. 

. 

No. of 

items 

Observed 

Range Mean 

Standard 

Deviation 

Internal Consistency 

Reliability 

Test-Retest 

Reliability 

8 1-10 6.87 1.76 .828 NA 

Source of Psychometric Data 

Stanford English Diabetes Self-Management study. Study reported in Lorig K, Ritter PL, Villa FJ, Armas 

J. Community-Based Peer-Led Diabetes Self-Management: A Randomized Trial. The Diabetes Educator 

2009; Jul-Aug;35(4):641-51. 

Comments 

This 8-item scale was originally developed and tested in Spanish for the Diabetes Self-Management study. 

For internet studies, we add radio buttons below each number. There is another way that we use to format 

these items, which takes up less space on a questionnaire, shown also in the PDF document. This scale is 

available in Spanish. 

References 

Unpublished. 

This scale is free to use without permission 

Self-Management Resource Center 

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