Data Collection

Data was collected using a structured questionnaire from the Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS). Participants were interviewed face to face, responding to each of the 17 items of DDS and responded using a six-point Likert scale (from “not a problem” to “a very serious problem”) relating to distress experienced during the last month. The Vietnamese version of DDS-17 items was translated and adapted to Vietnamese showing good internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.94 and high validity.¹⁴ The interview also included the gathering of baseline demographics of the participants such as age, gender, marital status, education, gross household income, occupation, history of illness, timescale of diabetes, medication and complications, while the HbA1c level was recorded via medical records. It took approximately 10–15 minutes to complete one interview.