Development of a Scale to Assess the Safe Disposal of Insulin Pen Needles in Patients With Diabetes: A Delphi Study

PURPOSE: Development of a measurement scale to assess the safe disposal of insulin pen needles in patients with diabetes. METHODS: In the preliminary stage, a pool of 35 items in four areas was generated through literature analysis, research group discussions and preliminary qualitative research. A Delphi study was then used. Experts in the relevant fields were invited to participate in a consultation, assessing each item's representativeness and clarity, after which the expert opinions were synthesised. The content of the items analysed was modified in order to finalise the prediction scale. RESULTS: 18 experts participated in the first round and 17 in the second round. Items of the scale were added, deleted, and amended based on experts' recommendations, statistical analysis, and study group discussions. After the second Delphi round, the experts reached a consensus on 26 items within four dimensions. In the two rounds of expert correspondence, the return rate of the questionnaire was 81.80% and 94.44%, respectively; the authority coefficients of the experts were 0.922 and 0.947, respectively; the Kendall coordination coefficients of the two rounds of the scale were 0.147 and 0.200, respectively (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The Safe Disposal of Insulin Pen Needles Scale for Patients with Diabetes has been shown to have adequate content validity. In the future, further analysis of the scale's validity and reliability is necessary to prove its value in managing insulin pen needles. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Using assessment tools for safely disposing of insulin pen needles has practical implications. The development of this scale can be used to assess the disposal behaviour of patients with diabetes towards discarded needles and provide a basis for intervention by health care professionals.