Psychometric Characteristics of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) in People Undergoing Weight Loss Surgery

A Chinese version of the Stroke Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised: Reliability and validity assessment in stroke patients

BACKGROUND

Illness perceptions are an important factor affecting the prognosis of stroke patients. Evaluating the illness perceptions of stroke patients is of great importance for predicting their health behaviour and rehabilitation outcomes. However, there is no specific tool for assessing illness perceptions in stroke patients in China.

OBJECTIVES

The objective of this study is to translate the Stroke Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (SIPQ-R) into Chinese and to psychometrically test the Chinese version of the scale in the population of Chinese stroke patients.

METHODS

This was a methodological study. We investigated 593 stroke patients in the neurology department of a hospital in China from March to September 2021. We translated the SIPQ-R and adapted it to the cultural context, after which we evaluated the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of SIPQ-R.

RESULTS

Exploratory factor analysis identified eight common factors that accounted for 71.74% of the total variance, and the factor loadings ranged from 0.530 to 0.933. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the eight-factor structure (χ2/df = 1.765, root mean square error of approximation = 0.053, incremental fit index = 0.906, comparative fit index = 0.905 and Tucker-Lewis index = 0.900). Internal consistency was confirmed by a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.982. The test-retest reliability was 0.762. The results showed good content validity (the scale level content validity index was 0.940, and the item level content validity index values ranged from 0.860 to 0.960). There were no missing responses and floor or ceiling effects. The standard error of measurement and the smallest detectable change for the SIPQ-R were 45.49 and 126.10, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study provide empirical evidence for the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the SIPQ-R for stroke patients.

Examination of Gender Differences: Causal Attributions of Treatment-Seeking Individuals With Overweight and Obesity

Background

Addressing patients' perceptions of the causes of their overweight and obesity may be a promising approach to enhance treatment motivation and success. Previous research suggests that there are gender differences in these aspects. The objective of this study was to investigate gender differences in causal attributions among individuals with overweight and obesity who participated in a cognitive-behavioral mobile health (mHealth) intervention.

Method

Causal attributions were assessed using the revised Illness Perceptions Questionnaire, which included a rated and open answering section. An ANCOVA was conducted for each causal factor (behavioral, psychological, risk, external) as a dependent variable to determine gender differences, which were analysed with chi-squared tests for open-ended responses.

Results

The most frequently mentioned and highly rated cause was behavior for both genders (59.8% of 639 responses). The results indicated that women rated psychological causes, particularly stress-related causes, significantly higher, F(1,211) = 14.88, p < .001, η2 = .07, and were more likely to cite emotional eating than men, χ2(1, N = 639) = 15.06, p < .001. Men rated alcohol stronger as cause than women, t(125.05) = 3.79, p < .001.

Conclusion

The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the gender differences in causal attributions among individuals with overweight or obesity. Implementing stress management interventions with a focus on emotion regulation is pivotal, especially for females. Interventions should focus on sensitizing males to the association between emotions and eating behavior. The causal attributions should be assessed with different survey methods in order to match the patient's view of their condition.

Illness perceptions of occupational hand eczema in German patients based on the common-sense model of self-regulation: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Occupational skin diseases (OSD) in the form of hand eczema (HE) are a common work-related disease. Illness perceptions as presented in Leventhal's Common-Sense Model (CSM) are important for patients' self-management of diseases. Understanding these illness perceptions is essential for patient communicating. No quantitative or qualitative studies which investigated subjective illness perceptions in patients with occupational HE utilized the CSM as theoretical framework. The Objective of this study is to investigate illness perceptions of patients with occupational hand eczema (HE) using the CSM.

METHODS

We applied an exploratory qualitative approach and conducted purposive sampling. Thirty-six patients with occupational HE were interviewed using an interview guide based on the dimensions of the CSM, including coherence and emotional representation. All participants participated in a three-week inpatient program at a clinic specialized on occupational dermatology. One interview had to be excluded before analysis, since one participant's diagnosis was retrospectively changed from ICD to tinea and hence did not match the inclusion criteria. Thirty-five interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed. Data was analyzed deductively and inductively using qualitative text analysis. MAXQDA 2018 (Verbi, Berlin, Germany), a software for qualitative data analysis, was applied for coding and summarizing of results. All dimensions of the CSM were explored for occupational HE.

RESULTS

Several sub-categories could be identified. Participants named a variety of causes in different areas (e. g. external irritants and other hazardous factors, psycho-social factors, allergies, having a 'bad immune system' or lifestyle). The great impact of the disease on the participants' life is shown by the wide range of consequences reported, affecting all areas of life (i. e. psychological, physical, occupational, private). Considering coherence, an ambivalence between comprehensibility and non-comprehensibility of the disease is apparent.

DISCUSSION

The complexity of illness perceptions presented in this paper is relevant for those involved in HE patient education and counseling, e. g, health educators, dermatologists, and, occupational physicians. Future research might further investigate specific aspects of illness perceptions in patients with occupational HE, especially considering the complexity of coherence and overlapping dimensions (i. e. emotional representation and psychological consequences).

Psychometric characteristics of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) in adults with sickle cell disease

OBJECTIVE

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most frequent monogenic disease worldwide. Psychological and behavioural factors are often reported as playing a significant role in predicting SCD health outcomes. When focusing on adaptation to a specific health condition and its treatment, the Common Sense Model of Health and Illness (CSM) has proven to be of heuristic value. In other health conditions, illness outcomes are directly influenced by illness perception. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the psychometric proprieties of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R).

DESIGN

We performed a cross-sectional assessment on 517 adult patients with sickle cell disease and collected the results of 406 IPQ-R. With these data, we verified the factor structure of the Belief scale and proposed modifications to improve its fit to the data with a confirmatory factor analysis. In addition, we explored the factorial structure of the Causal attribution scale with an exploratory factor analysis.

RESULTS

The initial model showed poor fit with the data. After structural modifications, elimination of two items with a low loading (model 2), covariance added between items (model 3) and items reallocation (model 4), the last model proposed presented a correct fit with the data. Before doing this model specification, we reviewed and compiled the nine studies that explored the psychometric properties of the IPQ-R in order to highlight all the modifications made by the other authors who have adapted the IPQ-R to a specific population and to allow a comparison with our own modifications.

CONCLUSION

Considering previous findings, this research suggests further work is needed on the structure of the dimensions of the IPQ-R.

A systematic review of illness representation clusters in chronic conditions

A person's beliefs about their chronic condition (illness representations) influence health and treatment outcomes. Recently, researchers have used clustering approaches to identify subgroups with different patterns of beliefs about their illness, with some subgroups having more favorable health outcomes than others. To date, these findings have not been synthesized. The purpose of this systematic review of the literature was to synthesize results of studies that used clustering approaches to analyze illness representation in chronic disease populations, in order to characterize the clusters and their relationship to health outcomes. Using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines we searched CINAHL, PsycInfo, and PubMed. To be included, studies had to be (a) peer reviewed, (b) in English, (c) performing a cluster analysis (CA), latent class analysis (LCA), or latent profile analysis (LPA), (d) using only illness representation (IR) subscales to form clusters, (e) measuring illness representation with the Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R), (f) in a chronic condition sample, and (g) measuring health-related outcomes. Twelve studies were included. Across studies, the number of clusters found ranged from two to three. In all studies, an association was found between illness representation group and at least one of their health outcomes. Illness representation clusters associated with favorable outcomes usually included lower disease-related consequences, fewer symptoms, less negative emotion, and a more stable disease pattern. The results of this review indicate that the relationship between the patterns of the illness representation profiles and health outcomes transcend diseases. Additionally, some dimensions of illness representation may be more important drivers of group membership than others.