Utility of Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire for Assessing the Acute Impact of COVID-19 Infection: A Psychometric Study

Background: The coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic has created mental health repercussions in the lives of many individuals. It is important to understand emergent perceptions of this illness among patients with a recent diagnosis of COVID-19. Due to its good psychometric properties, the brief illness perception questionnaire (BIPQ) has been widely used for various illnesses and in different languages. Its application in recently diagnosed COVID-19 patients is an area worth exploring in an Indian setting. Aim We aim to understand the patient’s perception of COVID-19 illness using the hindi adaptation of BIPQ and validate for its further use in a similar type of acute setting.Method This tool was customized by three subject experts for its application in recently diagnosed COVID-19 patients. A customized tool was circulated to nine subject matter specialists for the computation of the content validity index. The tool link was shared with patients. A total of 112 patients responded. Factor analysis and reliability analysis were also conducted.Result Item content validity index for all items in the BIPQ scale was in the acceptable range (value above 70%). Scale-content validity index/universal agreement was 88.8%. Bartlett’s test was significant (p < 0.001) and the Kaiser-Meier-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.777. The factor loading threshold was fixed at a value above 0.40. Eight Likert scale items of BIPQ based on factor analysis were regrouped in two. Items one, two, four, five, and eight were in group one, which depicted “concrete perception,” and items three, six, and seven were in group two which depicted “gestalt perception” of recently diagnosed COVID-19 patients. Cronbach’s alpha of the scale was found to be high at 0.808.Conclusion Results depicted a two-factor structure of BIPQ with satisfactory validity and reliability. We suggest regrouping of existing items of BIPQ into two domains, namely “concrete perception” and “gestalt perception” for recently diagnosed patients with COVID-19.