Validation of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire in Turkish epilepsy patients and the effects of earthquake experience on perception of disease

Selda Keskin Güler,1 Sertac Güler,2 Burcu Gökçe Çokal,1 Nalan Gunes,1 Mehmet İlker Yon,1 Tahir Kurtulus Yoldas1 1Department of Neurology, 2Department of Emergency Medicine, Ankara Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey Objective: The aims of this study were to investigate the reliability of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) in Turkish patients with epilepsy (PWE) and to determine the effects of earthquake experience on the perception of disease in patients.Materials and methods: The sample was composed of 48 PWE, who were affected by the 2011 earthquake (n=21) or who had never had any earthquake experience (n=27). The interview form, IPQ-R, and Beck Depression Scale (BDS) were applied.Results: The study was carried out on PWE whose mean age was 20.9 years (±8.1 years) and who had been diagnosed within the last 10 years (±6.9 years). IPQ-R consisted of three parts: illness identity, attributions concerning the disease, and probable causes. In the part of illness identity, the most frequently met manifestations were fatigue (76.6%) and headache (72.9%). Regarding attributions concerning the disease and probable causes, the test was determined to be reliable (reliability coefficient 0.715–0.814). In terms of personal control, timeline (acute/chronic), emotional representations, illness coherence, consequences, treatment control, and timeline subscales, which were investigated at the dimension about attributions concerning the disease, and psychological causal attributions, risk factors, and immunity subscales, which were investigated at the dimension about probable causes, no significant differences were found between groups (P>0.05). No difference was determined in terms of BDS scores (z=−0.895, P>0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that IPQ-R could be used reliably in the Turkish PWE. A severe life event such as an earthquake did not change IPQ-R scores in PWE. Keywords: epilepsy, Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire, earthquak