title: Development and preliminary evaluation of the validity and reliability of a revised illness perception questionnaire for healthcare professionals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Diverging perceptions between individual patients with somatic diseases and their healthcare professionals might cause problems in communication and decision-making. To date, no measurement tool is available to compare the illness perceptions between these two groups. The Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) is a validated, widely used instrument in many patient populations with somatic conditions. The aim of this study was to adapt the IPQ-R to a healthcare professional's version (IPQ-R HP) and to perform a preliminary evaluation of its validity and reliability.
  
  
  METHODS
  After adaptation of the IPQ-R HP, 17 doctors from 3 general hospitals and 9 head nurses from a university hospital evaluated the face and content validity of the IPQ-R HP. The results were quantified using the content validity index (CVI) and a modified kappa index (k*). For the reliability measurements a group of nurses from 4 nursing wards participated at 2 time points with an interval of 4 weeks. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-eight of the 38 items demonstrated excellent content validity and four items showed good content validity. Four items had a sufficient k* and two items had a low CVI. The average CVI of the 7 dimensions ranged from 0.66 to 0.89. The Cronbach's alpha scores for the seven dimensions, intraclass coefficients and effect size estimates were acceptable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This preliminary evaluation of the IPQ-R HP shows an acceptable to good validity and reliability. Further exploration of the psychometric properties of this questionnaire in a large cohort of healthcare professionals is warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Development and Regeneration, Skeletal Biology and Engineering Research Centre, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Seher
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arat
authors.affiliation: Ursulinen High School, Hoogstraat 35, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium.
authors.forename: Anke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van den Zegel
authors.affiliation: Midwifery Practice Leuven, Diestsesteenweg 49, 3010 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Maity
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van Rillaer
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 35, Box 7001, 3000 Leuven, Belgium ; Institute of Health and Care Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Moons
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Liaisonpsychiatry, University Hospitals Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium ; Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Joris
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vandenberghe
authors.affiliation: Department of Development and Regeneration, Skeletal Biology and Engineering Research Centre, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium ; Department of Rheumatology, University Hospitals Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Langhe
authors.affiliation: Department of Development and Regeneration, Skeletal Biology and Engineering Research Centre, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium ; Department of Rheumatology, University Hospitals Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Westhovens
keywords: Healthcare professionals; IPQ-R HP; Illness perceptions; Physical disease; Reliability; Validity