To the Editor:
We, the authors, wish to issue the following erratum regarding our article, “Quality of Life in Women With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Treatment Satisfaction Upon Intermittently Scanned Continuous Glucose Monitoring”
- Use of unlicensed questionnaires: The Audit of Diabetes-Dependent Quality of Life (ADDQoL) and the Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire change version (DTSQc) were used in our study without obtaining permission via a license from Health Psychology Research Ltd (HPR), the copyright holder.
- Use of unvalidated and modified versions: The Korean versions of the questionnaires used were not the official versions linguistically validated into Korean that could have been provided by HPR. The Korean versions modified for use in our study were obtained via a website that was not authorized to present the questionnaires and can no longer be found. We then modified these without consulting HPR. Modifications included reversed response scales (i.e. left-to-right conversion), omission of key instructions (e.g., the definition of QoL in the ADDQoL instructions), altered item wordings, and lack of contextual clarification. These changes may have affected the validity of the questionnaires and no attempt was made to evaluate the psychometric properties of the modified questionnaires. We could have used the validated ADDQoL and DTSQc without modifying the items.
- Preventing the reuse of the modified questionnaire and ensuring that future users of the DTSQ and ADDQoL obtain the questionnaires from HPR: As Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 are imperfect English translations of the unauthorized, unvalidated and modified Korean versions of the questionnaires used in our study, they have now been redacted. We encourage readers who wish to use the questionnaires to visit www.healthpsychologyresearch.com and email info@healthpsychologyresearch.com for access to the validated ADDQoL and DTSQ and for a license to use the questionnaires. HPR would have advised us to include the DTSQs (status version of the DTSQ) alongside the DTSQc to give a measure of absolute treatment satisfaction as well as change in treatment satisfaction. HPR would also have reviewed a draft manuscript and advised where the interpretation of results was inappropriate (e.g. where the DTSQc results are being described as absolute levels of satisfaction rather than change in satisfaction with treatment).
Therefore, findings should be interpreted with caution.
Content of correction:
*Redaction of Supplementary Tables 1 and 2
We would like to remove Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 (English translations of the unauthorized and modified Korean ADDQoL and DTSQc questionnaires used in our study) and replace these with the following message:
Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 have been redacted to prevent further use of the English translations of the unauthorized and modified Korean ADDQoL and DTSQc used in this work without permission of the copyright holder, Health Psychology Research Ltd. (HPR).
*Authors
(Before corrections)
Sookyung Won, Hyeon Ji Kim, Jee Yoon Park, Kyung Joon Oh, Sung Hee Choi, Hak Chul Jang, and Joon Ho Moon
(After corrections)
Joon Ho Moon, Hyeon Ji Kim, Jee Yoon Park, Kyung Joon Oh, Sung Hee Choi, and Hak Chul Jang