Measuring illness representations in breast cancer survivors (BCS) prescribed tamoxifen: Modification and validation of the Revised Illness Perceptions Questionnaire (IPQ-BCS)

Abstract

The IPQ-BCS is valid and reliable, and provides unique understanding of specific perceptions held by this population, including beliefs surrounding risk of recurrence and consequences of ongoing hormonal treatment. Identifying these perceptions will aid development of interventions targeting depression, fear of recurrence and medication non-adherence.

An illness-specific version of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF IPQ-R): Unpacking beliefs about treatment control, personal control and symptom triggers

“…Correlations were largely congruent with previous research (Moon et al, 2017;Moss-Morris et al, 2002;Snell, Siegert, HaySmith, & Surgenor, 2010). Within the AF-IPQ-R subscales, the belief that AF is a cyclical condition was related to greater emotional representations.…”

“…A systematic review of the IPQ-R used in musculoskeletal disorders also found moderate test-retest reliability and suggested that in illnesses where symptoms fluctuate, illness representations may not remain stable (Leysen et al, 2015). Emotional representations was the most stable construct, as found in previous research examining internal reliability of the IPQ-R (Moon et al, 2017), and may indicate emotional representations about AF are more stable than cognitive representations.…”

“…face validity). Think-aloud analysis has been used to modify the IPQ-R in patients with Type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and in children of patients with multiple sclerosis (Bogosian, MossMorris, Bishop, & Hadwin, 2014;McCorry, Scullion, McMurray, Houghton, & Dempster, 2013;Moon et al, 2017). Participants were given the modified questionnaire and asked to read each item aloud during telephone interviews.…”

“…While the IPQ-R takes more time for patients to complete than the B-IPQ, modifying the IPQ-R gives researchers a greater ability to describe more elaborated beliefs which may be amenable to change in future interventions. There are few validated modified versions of the IPQ-R but previous studies have been completed in breast cancer survivors, cervical screening and musculoskeletal pain (Hagger & Orbell, 2005;Moon, Moss-Morris, Hunter, & Hughes, 2017;Nicholls, Hill, & Foster, 2012). These studies report the ability of the modified versions to access disease-specific beliefs as a foundation to developing interventions to support patients and provide further empirical support for the IPQ-R in different contexts.…”

Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the revised illness perception questionnaire for breast cancer-related lymphedema

“…The Common Sense Model of Self‐Regulation (CSM) proposes that patients’ coping behaviours, such as adherence, are guided by their illness perception (Moon, Moss‐Morris, Hunter, & Hughes, ). According to the CSM, when faced with illness, individuals always construct a perception of their condition which is structured around nine dimensions (Moon et al., ): (a) identity: the symptoms the patients associates with the illness (Postolica, Iorga, Petrariu, & Azoicai, ), (b) timeline acute/chronic, (c) timeline cyclical: the perceived time frame of disease development and duration (e.g., acute, chronic or cyclical) (Richardson, Schuz, Sanderson, Scott, & Schuz, ), (d) consequences: beliefs about what effect the illness may have on the patient's life (Richardson et al., ), (e) personal control: internal control perception about the disease (Richardson et al., ), (f) treatment control: beliefs about the effectiveness of administered treatment (Keskin et al., ), (g) illness coherence: the degree to which an individual feels she understands the illness (Bassi et al., ), (h) emotional representation: the degree to which an individual links negative emotions to the illness (Bassi et al., ), and (i) cause: personal ideas about aetiology (Postolica et al., ).…”