Psychometric assessment of the Chinese version of the brief illness perception questionnaire in breast cancer survivors

Abstract

ObjectiveThe eight-item Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ) supposedly evaluates cognitive and emotional representations of illness. This study examined the validity and reliability of a traditional Chinese version of the B-IPQ in Hong Kong Chinese breast cancer survivors.Methods358 Chinese breast cancer survivors who had recently ended their primary treatment completed this B-IPQ Chinese version. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) tested the factor structure. The internal consistency, construct, predictive and convergent validities of the scale were assessed.ResultsCFA revealed that the original three-factor (cognitive-emotional representations and illness comprehensibility) structure of the B-IPQ poorly fitted our sample. After deleting one item measuring illness coherence, seven-item gave an optimal two-factor (cognitive-emotional representations) structure for the B-IPQ (B-IPQ-7). Cronbach’s alpha for the two subscales were 0.653 and 0.821, and for the overall seven-item scale of B-IPQ was 0.783. Correlations of illness perception and physical symptom distress, anxiety, depression and known-group comparison between different treatment status suggested acceptable construct validity. The association between baseline illness perception and psychological distress at 3-month follow up supported predictive validity.ConclusionsB-IPQ-7 appears to be a moderately valid measure of illness perception in cancer population, potentially useful for assessing illness representations in Chinese women with breast cancer.

Optimistic, realistic, and pessimistic illness perceptions; quality of life; and survival among 2457 cancer survivors: the population‐based PROFILES registry

“…The inclusion of survivors with recurrent disease may have inflated the results of the current study because these individuals were likely allocated to the pessimistic IPs group and inevitably had poorer health outcomes. Furthermore, our composite BIPQ scale was based on a factor structure that was similar to that of other studies, [22][23][24][25] but does not support the theoretical model by Leventhal et al that presents emotional and cognitive representations as distinct factors. 33 As a consequence, the groups in the current study were not only based on cognitive perceptions regarding disease severity, such as perceptions of how long the disease will continue, but also on emotional representations.…”

Questionnaire on Perception of Threat from COVID-19

“…The scale most widely used is the Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ), validated with a sample of patients with chronic diseases (asthma, liver, and diabetes), is made up of 38 items. The nine-item brief version (BIP-Q) [16], has also been widely used [12,22,23]. The original questionnaire measures identity, cause, timeline, consequences, and control/cure.…”

“…The original questionnaire measures identity, cause, timeline, consequences, and control/cure. Studies have proven the usefulness of both the original version and the brief questionnaire for exploring perception of the disease in different areas of health [12,16,23,24]. Later, Moss-Morris et al [17] revised the original questionnaire to extend it to the cognitive and affective dimensions of disease perception in the Illness Perception Questionnaire Revised (IPQ-R) with 70 items.…”

“…This brief version of the questionnaire has adequate psychometric properties [24]. The BIP-Q has also shown acceptable reliability indices with large-scale adult populations in several different countries [16,23,28,29]. Other versions of the questionnaire have robust validations with Spanish samples [15,30].…”

Reliability and validation of Swedish translation of Beliefs about Medication Specific (BMQ-Specific) and Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (B-IPQ) for use in adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

“…Similarly, B-IPQ has been validated for different conditions and languages [29][30][31][32][33][34], although only lately translated to Swedish for use in adolescents with ADHD [14]. The B-IPQ [21] covers five domains: identity, timeline, cause, control and consequences [35][36][37][38][39].…”