Evaluation of Self-management Program Outcomes: Adaptation and Testing of a Swedish Version of the Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ).

ABSTRACT

Self-management programs require a range of indicators to evaluate their outcomes. The Health Education Impact Questionnaire (heiQ) was developed to meet this need. The heiQ contains 40 items with 4 response categories, representing eight scales. We developed a Swedish version of the heiQ that was tested by cognitive interviews (n = 15) and psychometrically (n = 177) using classical test theory (CTT) and Rasch measurement theory (RMT). The Swedish heiQ was easily understood by interviewees and met CTT criteria, with supported scaling assumptions (corrected item-total correlations, 0.37) and reliability (ordinal alpha 0.78). General support was demonstrated for the measurement properties of the eight heiQ scales by acceptable RMT fit. However, there were signs of malfunctioning response categories for four items in two scales, and of suboptimal item coverage of the measurement continua. The Swedish heiQ appears comparable to other available language versions. Further efforts may be needed to optimize response categories and measurement precision.