THE ILLNESS PERCEPTION QUESTIONNAIRE - A NEW METHOD FOR ASSESSING THECOGNITIVE REPRESENTATION OF ILLNESS

The Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ) is a new method for assessi ng cognitive representations of illness. The IPQ is a theoretically de rived measure comprising five scales that provides information about t he five components that have been found to underlie the cognitive repr esentation of illness. The five scales assess identity - the symptoms the patient associates with the illness, cause - personal ideas about aetiology, time-line - the perceived duration of the illness, conseque nces - expected effects and outcome and cure control - how one control s or recovers from the illness. The IPQ has a specific number of core items but allows the user to add items for particular patient groups o r health threats. Data is presented supporting the reliability and val idity of the IPQ scales in different chronic illness populations.