Psychometric testing of the Iceland Health Care Practitioner Illness Beliefs Questionnaire among school nurses

• Published in: Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences
• Main Authors: Svavarsdottir, Erla Kolbrun, Looman, Wendy, Tryggvadottir, Gudny Bergthora, Garwick, Ann
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands, University of Minnesota, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2017
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/scs.12457; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fscs.12457; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/scs.12457

Background Beliefs have been found to have an effect on how people deal with illness. Therefore, knowing healthcare practitioners’ beliefs about specific high frequency illnesses are vital when caring for vulnerable populations such as school‐age children with chronic illnesses or disorders. Aim To psychometrically test the Iceland Health Care Practitioner Illness Beliefs Questionnaire for healthcare professionals who are working with families of school‐age children with asthma and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Design The Iceland Health Care Practitioner Illness Beliefs Questionnaire is a 7‐item Likert‐type instrument with four additional open‐ended questions that was developed from the Iceland Family Illness Belief Questionnaire. The questionnaire is designed to measure a provider's beliefs about their understanding of the meaning of the illness situation for families. The questionnaire was administered to 162 school nurses in Iceland and the state of Minnesota. Method Two condition‐specific versions of the Iceland Health Care Practitioner Illness Beliefs Questionnaire were developed in this study: one to measure beliefs about families of children with asthma and one to measure beliefs about families of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Higher scores on the questionnaire indicate that healthcare professionals are more confident in their illness beliefs. After initial development, the questionnaire was translated into English. Participants completed the questionnaire using an online survey platform and parallel study procedures in both countries. Results Based on exploratory factor analysis using principal component analysis, the Iceland Health Care Practitioner Illness Beliefs Questionnaire was found to have a one‐factor solution with good construct validity (Cronbach's α = 0.91). Confirmatory factor analysis supported the one‐factor solution (Cronbach's α = 0.91). Conclusion This instrument is a promising tool for measuring illness beliefs among healthcare practitioners in ...