The Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire

Cognitive and emotional dimensions to illness perceptions are recognized to influence health, engagement with work and sickness absence for a range of illnesses [ 1 , 2] . Cognitive aspects include the patient’s understanding of the illness such as its cause, the effectiveness of treatment and its likely course. Emotional features include the degree of anger, fear or mood change. The 80-item Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ) and its shorter revised (IPQ-R) and brief (IPQ-B) versions were developed to assess these illness dimensions. The IPQ-B consists of nine items rated on a scale from 0 (minimum) to 10 (maximum). The first five assess cognitive perceptions such as effect on life (item 1); duration of illness (item 2); control over illness (item 3); beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment (item 4); and experience of symptoms (item 5). Items 6 and 8 assess emotional aspects to include concern about illness and a multifaceted question about mood. Item 7 assesses degree of understanding of the illness. The final item is open-ended, asking respondents to rank the three most important factors causing their illness. The questionnaire has been translated into 26 languages. It is intended for use in groups rather than individuals, so is more suited to research settings.