Psychometric properties of the Malay version of the Illness Cognition Questionnaire among cancer patients in Malaysia

The Illness Cognition Questionnaire (ICQ) was translated from its original English version to the Malay version for this research, adapted the Malay language version of the ICQ (ICQ-M) for use in cancer patients, and assessed the internal consistency, content, face, construct, convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity of the ICQ-M among a cohort of cancer patients with mixed cancer types in Malaysia.

Initially, the ICQ was translated into Malay and back-translated, and its content and face validity were evaluated. Then, 346 cancer patients with various cancer types received the ICQ-M, and its internal consistency, convergent, discriminant, construct, and concurrent validity were evaluated.

The ICQ-M and its domains had acceptable internal consistency with Cronbach’s α ranging from 0.742 to 0.927. Construct validity assessment demonstrated that the ICQ-M consists of 17 items designated in two domains with good convergent and discriminant validity. The ICQ-M and its domains also had moderate correlations with the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire II, which denotes that the ICQ-M had acceptable concurrent validity.

The ICQ-M had good psychometric properties and is now available to measure the illness cognition of cancer patients in Malaysia.