Adaptation of the Mishel Uncertainty of Illness Scale (MUIS) for chronic patients in Italy. Issue 4 (25th April 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Giammanco, Maria Daniela; Gitto, Lara; Barberis, Nadia; Santoro, Domenico
• Is Part Of: Journal of evaluation in clinical practice. Volume 21:Issue 4(2015)
• Page Start: 649
• Page End: 655
• Publication Date: 2015-04-25
• Subjects: Clinical medicine -- Periodicals; 616.005
• DOI: 10.1111/jep.12359
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1356-1294

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Abstract</title> <sec id="jep12359-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Rationale, aims and objectives</title> <p>Uncertainty is a component of the illness experience and is likely to increase the burden of managing chronic illness, as cardiac pathologies and renal diseases. The impact of uncertainty should be taken into account and addressed with targeted intervention programmes. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the diffusion of the assessment of uncertainty in illness by validating the Mishel uncertainty in illness scale (MUIS) on chronic Italian patients.</p> </sec> <sec id="jep12359-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Method</title> <p>The MUIS questionnaire was administered to 200 patients suffering from cardiac diseases and 50 patients with renal diseases. A confirmatory factor analysis was run for each of the MUIS dimensions (<italic>ambiguity</italic>, <italic>inconsistency</italic>, <italic>complexity</italic> and <italic>unpredictability</italic>).</p> </sec> <sec id="jep12359-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>After some item reduction, three of the four MUIS scales, namely, <italic>ambiguity</italic>, <italic>inconsistency</italic> and <italic>complexity</italic>, exhibited satisfactory reliability coefficients (with Cronbach's alphas of, respectively, 0.796, 0.778 and 0.705), highly significant standardized regression weights and satisfactory/highly satisfactory fit indexes. Nevertheless, as the correlations among the scales mentioned earlier were high (all above 0.8) and statistically significant, the three subsets of <italic>ambiguity</italic>, <italic>complexity</italic> and <italic>inconsistency</italic> items were allowed to load onto a new single factor. A monodimensional <italic>uncertainty</italic> construct, grouping the majority of the items encompassed by these three MUIS scales, was successfully validated.</p> </sec> <sec id="jep12359-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>This study provides researchers with an easy‐to‐administer instrument which is useful to investigate a crucial aspect related with patients' quality of life. Although a unique uncertainty construct is proposed, the in‐depth analysis of the replies to each single item of the MUIS could help to monitor patients' emotional responses to the diagnosis and to the course of this disease and it might be useful to define appropriate strategies of coping and to focus on patients' quests for simplicity and clarity of treatment.</p> </sec> </abstract>