The need for information among patients with hematological malignancies: Psychometric analyses of the 62-item Hematology Information Needs Questionnaire (HINQ-62)

Janneke A J Rood; Birgit I Lissenberg-Witte; Corien Eeltink; Frank Stam; Florence J van Zuuren; Sonja Zweegman; Irma M Verdonck-de Leeuw

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0201699

The need for information among patients with hematological malignancies: Psychometric analyses of the 62-item Hematology Information Needs Questionnaire (HINQ-62)

PLoS One. 2018 Aug 9;13(8):e0201699. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201699. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Janneke A J Rood^{1

2}, Birgit I Lissenberg-Witte³, Corien Eeltink¹, Frank Stam², Florence J van Zuuren⁴, Sonja Zweegman¹, Irma M Verdonck-de Leeuw⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hematology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
² Department of Internal medicine, Northwest Clinics, Alkmaar, the Netherlands.
³ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Clinical Psychology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric characteristics (content validity, internal consistency, and subscale structure) of the Hematology Information Needs Questionnaire-62 (HINQ-62), a patient reported outcome measure (PROM) for assessing the need for information among patients with hematological malignancies (HM-patients). Baseline data were used from a prospective study on the need for information which 336 newly diagnosed HM-patients had completed. In phase 1 (design phase), data from the first 135 patients were used and in phase 2 (validation phase), data from the remaining 201 HM patients were used. Content validity was analyzed by examining irrelevance of items. Items were considered irrelevant if more than 10% of the patients scored totally disagree on that item. The subscale structure of the HINQ-62 was investigated with Factor analysis (FA) (exploratory FA in phase 1 and confirmatory FA in phase 2). Cronbach's α was computed for the different subscales and >.70 was considered as good internal consistency. None of the 62 HINQ-items were irrelevant. Exploratory FA identified five subscales: "Disease, symptoms, treatment and side-effects", "Etiology, sleep and physical changes", "Self-care", "Medical tests and prognosis", and "Psychosocial". Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) among patients was 0.037 in phase 1 and 0.045 in phase 2. The comparative fit index (CFI)/Tucker-Lewis index -non-normed fit index among patients was 0.984/0.983 and 0.948/0.946, in phase 1 and 2 respectively. The internal consistency of the subscales was good, with Cronbach's α 0.82-0.99. The HINQ is a valid PROM for assessing the need for information among Dutch HM-patients at diagnosis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice*
Hematologic Neoplasms*
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Patient Reported Outcome Measures
Psychometrics
Surveys and Questionnaires*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a grant of the Northwest Academy. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.