Preliminary Validation of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire for Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma in China

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a common and highly malignant cancer in southern China. It is important to accurately assess the illness perception of nasopharyngeal carcinoma according to the common-sense model of self-regulation. The purpose was to validate the Chinese version of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire for patients with Nasopharyngeal carcinoma. A cross-sectional survey of 631 patients with Nasopharyngeal carcinoma was conducted in Guangzhou, China. The reliability of the scale was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha. The factor structure was assessed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of each dimension. The EFA revealed that the 29-item self-rated scale has a seven-factor structure consistent with the original scale and explained 67.3% of the variance after extraction and rotation. The scale showed satisfactory reliability. The item-total correlations ranged from -0.16 to 0.64 (p < 0.05). The item-subscale correlations ranged from 0.46 to 0.91 (p < 0.05). The item-other subscale correlations ranged from -0.38 to 0.51 and from -0.21 to 0.56 (p < 0.05). Significant correlations were found between the timeline (acute/chronic) (r = 0.224, r = 0.166), consequences (r = 0.415, r = 0.338), timeline cyclical (r = 0.366, r = 0.284), emotional representations (r = 0.497, r = 0.465), personal control (r = -0.122, r = -0.134), treatment control (r = -0.135, r = -0.148), and illness coherence (r = -0.261, r = -0.213) subscales, and depression, anxiety (p < 0.05). The scale revealed acceptable reliability, factorial validity, and construct validity. It could be used to assess the illness representations of Chinese patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.