Measuring diabetes health beliefs in the South Asian population: A narrative systematic review of feasibility and validity

The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review to assess the acceptability, feasibility, reliability and validity of standardised questionnaires on diabetes-related health beliefs in South Asian populations.Asearch strategy was developed for the concepts diabetes mellitus, South Asians and health beliefs. CINAHL, EMBASE, Medline, PsychINFO and Geobase were systematically searched from 1992 to 2010, and the search was updated in 2012. Studies were eligible if they used standardised questionnaires to assess diabetes-related health beliefs among members of any of the seven South Asian sub-ethnic groups diagnosed with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Five studies met the inclusion criteria. Reporting of information on study design and methods was of variable quality across the five studies, making it difficult to assess acceptability and feasibility. Most studies required researchers to provide face-to-face support to respondents to aid feasibility. Only two studies used questionnaires about diabetes-related health beliefs as predictors of self-management Despite the high prevalence of diabetes in South Asians, to date there has been little research on the acceptability, feasibility, reliability and validity of questionnaires about health beliefs. This must be addressed if this population is to benefit from future research on health beliefs and related interventions