Background: To design a comprehensive tool to assess the knowledge of pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients with diabetes mellitus among medical students (MS) and residents and to evaluate this tool in a hospital setting.
Methods: A multiple-choice questionnaire with 21 questions was designed and administered to MS and residents. Cronbach alpha test was used to assess the internal consistency of the questionnaire, and chi2 analysis was used to test statistically significant difference among different groups.
Results: A total of 4 groups of MS, 15 postgraduate year 1 (PGY1), 8 PGY2, 4 PGY3, and 3 PGY4 participated in the study. The survey showed a good overall internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.5). The percent of correct responses for MS, PGY1, PGY2, PGY3, and PGY4 were 75 +/- 4.2%, 79.8 +/- 13.5%, 81.5 +/- 16.1%, 85.6 +/- 12.3%, and 88.4 +/- 12.8%, respectively.
Conclusions: We successfully designed and administered a diabetes knowledge assessment tool. This novel tool can be used in different settings to assess knowledge about important components of diabetes care among housestaff and steer practice-based learning. We observed trends toward improving level of knowledge with increase in the duration of training.