Good Psychometric Properties of the Addiction Version of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire for Health Care Professionals.
BACKGROUND
Addiction, or substance dependence, is nowadays considered a chronic relapsing condition. However, perceptions of addiction vary widely, also among healthcare professionals. Perceptions of addiction are thought to contribute to attitude and stigma towards patients with addiction. However, studies into perceptions of addiction among healthcare professionals are limited and instruments for reliable assessment of their perceptions are lacking. The Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ) is widely used to evaluate perceptions of illness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the IPQ: factor structure, internal consistency, and discriminant validity, when applied to evaluate healthcare professionals' perceptions of addiction.


METHODS
Participants were 1072 healthcare professionals in training and master students from the Netherlands and Indonesia, recruited from various addiction-training programs. The revised version of the IPQ was adapted to measure perceptions of addiction (IPQ-A). Maximum likelihood method was used to explore the best-fit IPQ factor structure. Internal consistency was evaluated for the final factors. The final factor structure was used to assess discriminant validity of the IPQ, by comparing illness perceptions of addiction between 1) medical students from the Netherlands and Indonesia, 2) medical students psychology students and educational science students from the Netherlands, and 3) participants with different training levels: medical students versus medical doctors.


RESULTS
Factor analysis revealed an eight-factor structure for the perception subscale (demoralization, timeline chronic, consequences, personal control, treatment control, illness coherence, timeline cyclical emotional representations) and a four-factor structure for the attribution subscale (psychological attributions, risk factors, smoking/alcohol, overwork). Internal reliability was acceptable to good. The IPQ-A was able to detect differences in perceptions between healthcare professionals from different cultural and educational background and level of training.


CONCLUSIONS
The IPQ-A is a valid and reliable instrument to assess healthcare professionals' perceptions of addiction.
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia.|Nijmegen Institute for Scientist-Pracititoners in Addiction, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Astri Parawita
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0979-1593
AP
Ayu
Nijmegen Institute for Scientist-Pracititoners in Addiction, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Boukje
B
Dijkstra
Praktikon, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Milou
M
Golbach
Nijmegen Institute for Scientist-Pracititoners in Addiction, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Cor
C
De Jong
Nijmegen Institute for Scientist-Pracititoners in Addiction, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.|Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Arnt
A
Schellekens
D000328:Adult; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000523:psychology*; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007214:Indonesia; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult