Page 16 - THE PERCEPT STUDY Illness Perceptions in Physiotherapy Edwin de Raaij
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Chapter 1
 These IPs often emerge from somatic sensations (e.g. pain) and aberration from normal physical functioning (e.g. limitations in daily functioning), as well as from observations and discussions of illness with others (including the exchange of medical information) and from other environmental/societal/contextual cues (e.g. mass and social media)17.
IPs are grouped into five illness perception dimensions:
1. Identity : the label or name given to the illness by patients and the symptoms
that are perceived to go with it
2. Timeline : how long the patient believes the illness or symptoms will last
3. Consequences : how strong the impact of the patient’s illness is on, for example, pain or physical function
4. Causal : the patient’s beliefs about what causes the illness
5. Control : the patient’s beliefs about how to control or recover from the illness
The Evidence
A meta-analytic review of the CSM of Illness Representations from 2003 showed associations of IPs with psychological wellbeing, role and social functioning, and vitality in mainly non- musculoskeletal disorders17. Associations of IPs with MSP have been reported7,16,21,24,31,49,53,55, though a systematic overview of relevant literature is lacking.
Measurements
The assessment of individual IP dimensions has evolved from taking interviews to using validated questionnaires48. For the current thesis, three questionnaires need to be discussed in more detail: Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ), Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R) and the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (Brief IPQ). In 1996, Weinman et al. published the IPQ which explicitly assesses the initial five IP dimensions65. Empirical research on the IPQ made clear that some dimensions needed to be re-evaluated and/or further defined, resulting in additional dimensions (Coherence, Concern, Emotional Response). Consequently, the IPQ was adapted and relabeled the IPQ-R44. In the IPQ-R, the Control dimension was divided into the Personal Control and Treatment Control dimensions. The Timeline dimension was complemented with the Cyclical Timeline dimension. The Emotional Response dimension incorporates negative emotional reactions. The Concern and Coherence dimensions reflect the individual’s ideas about distress and making sense of the illness. For use in daily practice, a nine-item Brief IPQ was developed8. All three questionnaires have been validated within English-speaking countries but, by 2010, none of these questionnaires had been validated for Dutch-speaking populations.
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