Development and preliminary testing of a questionnaire to measure mobile health information‐seeking behaviour in people with cancer

Abstract

Abstract Aim The aim of the study was to develop and psychologically test the mobile health information‐seeking behaviour (MHISB) questionnaire in people with cancer. Design Instrument development. Methods The study was conducted in three phases in a southeastern city of China from May 2017 to April 2018. In phase one, an item pool was constructed based on a literature review and semistructured interviews. In phase two, expert evaluation and cognitive interviews were used to evaluate the content validity of the questionnaire. In phase three, a cross‐sectional study was conducted with people with cancer. Cronbach's α was calculated for reliability analysis. Validity evaluation included content validity and construct validity. Results The developed MHISB questionnaire has four dimensions (information‐seeking frequency, information‐seeking self‐efficacy, health information evaluation and information‐seeking willingness) and 25 items. Psychometric findings were satisfactory and supported the questionnaire's reliability. Conclusions The construction process of the MHISB questionnaire was scientific and feasible. The MHISB questionnaire had acceptable validity and reliability, and it requires further improvement in future studies.

Keywords

• cancer
• information‐seeking behaviour
• instrument development
• mobile health
• psychometric assessment