The need for information among patients with hematological malignancies: Psychometric analyses of the 62-item Hematology Information Needs Questionnaire (HINQ-62)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric characteristics (content validity, internal consistency, and subscale structure) of the Hematology Information Needs Questionnaire-62 (HINQ-62), a patient reported outcome measure (PROM) for assessing the need for information among patients with hematological malignancies (HM-patients). Baseline data were used from a prospective study on the need for information which 336 newly diagnosed HM-patients had completed. In phase 1 (design phase), data from the first 135 patients were used and in phase 2 (validation phase), data from the remaining 201 HM patients were used. Content validity was analyzed by examining irrelevance of items. Items were considered irrelevant if more than 10% of the patients scored totally disagree on that item. The subscale structure of the HINQ-62 was investigated with Factor analysis (FA) (exploratory FA in phase 1 and confirmatory FA in phase 2). Cronbach’s α was computed for the different subscales and >.70 was considered as good internal consistency. None of the 62 HINQ-items were irrelevant. Exploratory FA identified five subscales: “Disease, symptoms, treatment and side-effects”, “Etiology, sleep and physical changes”, “Self-care”, “Medical tests and prognosis”, and “Psychosocial”. Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) among patients was 0.037 in phase 1 and 0.045 in phase 2. The comparative fit index (CFI)/Tucker-Lewis index -non-normed fit index among patients was 0.984/0.983 and 0.948/0.946, in phase 1 and 2 respectively. The internal consistency of the subscales was good, with Cronbach’s α 0.82–0.99. The HINQ is a valid PROM for assessing the need for information among Dutch HM-patients at diagnosis.