Measuring health information seeking challenges in chronic disease: A psychometric analysis of a brief scale

Abstract

Information seeking is a cornerstone of patient activation in chronic disease self-management. To date, there are few brief and literacy-sensitive tools to measure intrinsic barriers of health information seeking. The Health Information National Trends Survey includes four items from the Information Seeking Experiences scale to measure frustration, effort, concern, and comprehension of information sought during a recent medical/health information search. Limited evidence exists for its construct validity and use in primary data collection in chronic disease. This measurement study examines the psychometric properties of the scale. Qualtrics Panelists with at least one chronic disease (N = 684) participated in an online survey. The average score was M = 12.85 (SD = 3.97), indicating a moderate degree of health information seeking challenges. Confirmatory factor analysis of data collected using this scale supported unidimensionality (RMSEA = .03; CFI/TLI = .99/.99). There was adequate scale (ω = .83) and item (value = .98) reliabilities. Rasch analyses showed optimal measurement error and response predictability with item-fit (values = .80–1.20). Response option “agree” was less likely to be selected than any other response option, although not posing a threat to scale reliability. Results demonstrate that this brief scale has sufficient measurement properties for its use as a measure of intrinsic health information seeking barriers among patients with chronic disease.