Objective To develop a scale assessing barriers to self-monitoring of blood glucose for diabetes patients and to test its reliability and validity. Methods Based on the cognitive-emotional-behavioral theory and social support theory, draft of the scale was formed using literature review, semi-structured interviews, and expert consultation. A convenience sampling method was employed to select 617 type 2 diabetes patients in Chongqing for the survey to test the reliability and validity of the scale. Results The barriers to self-monitoring of blood glucose scale for diabetes patients consists of three dimensions named as cognition, emotion, behavior and support, with a total of 23 items. Exploratory factor analysis yielded four common factors with eigenvalue greater than 1 that accounted for 64.903% of variance. Confirmatory factor analysis showed the three-factor model had a good fit with the latent constructs (χ2/df=2.811, RMSEA=0.075, CFI=0.916, TLI=0.903, IFI=0.916, and SRMR=0.068). The item-level content validity index (I-CVI) ranged from 0.833 to 1.000, and the scale-level content validity index (S-CVI/Ave) was 0.956. The overall Cronbach′s alpha coefficient was 0.885, and the split-half reliability was 0.946. Conclusion The barriers to self-monitoring of blood glucose scale for diabetes patients is reliable and valid to assess the obstacles to self-monitoring of blood glucose in diabetes patients.