Preferences for health information and decision-making

The Health Information Wants (HIW) Questionnaire was developed to measure 1) a broad range of the types and amount of each type of information health consumers want to have in dealing with health-related issues; and 2) the degree to which health consumers want to participate in each type of decision-making in each corresponding area. With parallel items in each corresponding area of information and decision-making, this instrument can reveal the relationship between information and decision-making preferences in each area. This paper reports the multi-stage development process of this instrument that lasted for over two years. This process included: 1) a grounded theory-driven exploratory study that identified the core framework; 2) initial item development based on the literature and the exploratory study; 3) content validity testing; 4) cognitive testing; and 5) a pilot study testing the psychometrics of the instrument.