Psychometric properties of the Russian version of Brief illness Perception Questionnaire

Abstract

In foreign psychological studies the term "illness perception" is used to describe the basic self-regulation of health and disease. It implies cognitive and emotional representation about symptoms of the disease. This work is designated to development and assessing on the Russian-speaking population a brief illness perception questionnaire (BIPQ). The sample comprises 337 respondents aged between 15 to 60 years. Study included three groups of patients: patients with breast cancer (n = 100), adult patients with cystic fibrosis (n = 86), patients with depressive disorders (n = 121), adolescents with dependence syndrome from synthetic cannabinoids (n = 30). It was shown that the Russian version of brief illness perception questionnaire has a high reliability, consistency of performance, and has high test-retest reliability. Convergent validity confirmed significant correlation with anxiety, depression, cognitive strategies for coping with the situation of the disease. According to the results of regression analysis, it was found that the components of the perception of the disease have an independent contribution to the variety of cognitive strategies for coping with the situation of the disease. In particular, it is shown that such components of the perception of the disease as "Coherence", "Consequences" while reducing the "Emotional representation" contribute to the choice of strategy "Acceptance". In the choice of cognitive strategy "Perceived benefits" have cumulative impact such components of the perception of the disease as "Coherence", as well as low scores on "Emotional representation" and "Identity". The predominance of maladaptive cognitive strategies "Helplessness" is associated with the severity of illness perception components such as the "Consequences", "Emotional representation", "Timeline". In general, a brief illness perception questionnaire is a reliable tool that allows expanding the repertoire of diagnostics instruments designed to study various aspects of the internal picture of the disease.