Journal Article

Measurement of stable changes of self-management skills after rehabilitation: a latent state–trait analysis of the Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ™)

Ehlebracht-König, I., Musekamp, G., Faller, H., Nolte, S., Schuler, M., Bengel, J., Schwarze, M., Spanier, K., Gutenbrunner, Chr, Osborne, R. H.

2014

Overview

Purpose To assess stable effects of self-management programs, measurement instruments should primarily capture the attributes of interest, for example, the self-management skills of the measured persons. However, measurements of psychological constructs are always influenced by both aspects of the situation (states) and aspects of the person (traits). This study tests whether the Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ™), an instrument assessing a wide range of proximal outcomes of self-management programs, is primarily influenced by person factors instead of situational factors. Furthermore, measurement invariance over time, changes in traits and predictors of change for each heiQ™ scale were examined. Methods Subjects were N = 580 patients with rheumatism, asthma, orthopedic conditions or inflammatory bowel disease, who filled out the heiQ™ at the beginning, the end of and 3 months after a disease-specific inpatient rehabilitation program in Germany. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to estimate latent trait-change models and test for measurement invariance in each heiQ™ scale. Coefficients of consistency, occasion specificity and reliability were computed. Results All scales showed scalar invariance over time. Reliability coefficients were high (0.80–0.94), and consistency coefficients (0.49–0.79) were always substantially higher than occasion specificity coefficients (0.14–0.38), indicating that the heiQ™ scales primarily capture person factors. Trait-changes with small to medium effect sizes were shown in five scales and were affected by sex, age and diagnostic group. Conclusion The heiQ™ can be used to assess stable effects in important outcomes of self-management programs over time, e.g., changes in self-management skills or emotional well-being.

• Publisher: Springer,Springer International Publishing,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Adult / Asthma / Bowel disease / Chronic Disease - rehabilitation / Chronic diseases / Chronic illnesses / Coefficients / Emotional distress / Female / Germany / Health Education / Humans / Inpatients / Male / Managerial skills / Measurement techniques / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Middle Aged / Orthopedics / Parametric models / Psychological Theory / Psychometrics / Public Health / Quality of Life / Quality of Life Research / Quantitative psychology / Questionnaires / Rehabilitation / Reproducibility of Results / Scalars / Scale modeling / Self Care - methods / Social integration / Sociology / Structural equation modeling / Surveys and Questionnaires