Face and Content Validity of the EMPOWER-UP Questionnaire: a Generic Measure of Empowerment in Relational Decision-making and Problem-solving

Overview

Journal BMC Med Inform Decis Mak

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Medical Informatics

Date 2024 Oct 28

PMID 39465377

Authors

Emilie Haarslev Schroder Marqvorsen

Line Lund

Sigrid Normann Biener

Mette Due-Christensen

Gitte R Husted

Rikke Jorgensen

Anne Sophie Mathiesen

Mette Linnet Olesen

Morten Aagaard Petersen

Francois Pouwer

Bodil Rasmussen

Mette Juel Rothmann

Thordis Thomsen

Kirsty Winkley

Vibeke Zoffmann

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Decision-making and problem-solving processes are powerful activities occurring daily across all healthcare settings. Their empowering potential is seldom fully exploited, and they may even be perceived as disempowering. We developed the EMPOWER-UP questionnaire to enable assessment of healthcare users' perception of empowerment across health conditions, healthcare settings, and healthcare providers' professional backgrounds. This article reports the initial development of EMPOWER-UP, including face and content validation.

Methods: Four grounded theories explaining barriers and enablers to empowerment in relational decision-making and problem-solving were reviewed to generate a preliminary item pool, which was subsequently reduced using constant comparison. Preliminary items were evaluated for face and content validity using an expert panel of seven researchers and cognitive interviews in Danish and English with 29 adults diagnosed with diabetes, cancer, or schizophrenia.

Results: A preliminary pool of 139 items was reduced to 46. Independent feedback from expert panel members resulted in further item reduction and modifications supporting content validity and strengthening the potential for generic use. Forty-one preliminary items were evaluated through 29 cognitive interviews, resulting in a 36-item draft questionnaire deemed to have good face and content validity and generic potential.

Conclusions: Face and content validation using an expert panel and cognitive interviews resulted in a 36-item draft questionnaire with a potential for evaluating empowerment in user-provider interactions regardless of health conditions, healthcare settings, and healthcare providers' professional backgrounds.

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