GAINS - Goals Associated with Health Information Seeking

The 16 item-GAINS questionnaire aims at measuring individual goals of health information seeking on the four scales ‘Understanding’, ‘Action Planning’, ‘Hope’ and ‘Reassurance’, as well as measuring a general need for health information, computed as the mean score across the scales. As the questionnaire has already been validated in two large student samples using fictional health problem scenarios, the aim of this study is to determine if the instrument may also be applied in the general population to persons who have a real health problem and a resulting information need. First, our aim is to analyse basic item characteristics (difficulty, variance, and discriminatory power) as well as the internal consistency of the scales (Cronbach´s Alpha). Second, we aim to replicate the proposed factor structure of the GAINS-questionnaire in a relevant sample and therefore validate its structure. According to our theoretical assumptions from the initial validation, we expect a confirmatory factor model with five latent variables (four first order-factors representing the four goals measured by the GAINS and one second-order factor representing a general need for health information) to yield a good fit. We will also examine nomological relationships of the GAINS scales with relevant constructs to analyze construct validity.

Der GAINS ist ein Forschungsinstrument, das die individuellen Ziele erfasst, die Personen verfolgen, wenn sie nach Gesundheitsinformationen suchen. Außerdem kann die Ausprägung eines allgemeinen Bedürfnisses nach Gesundheitsinformationen ermittelt werden. Nach der theoretischen Ableitung der vier relevantesten, nicht-redundanten Ziele der Suche nach Gesundheitsinformationen wurden 16 Items zu den diesen Zielen entsprechenden vier Skalen (1) Verstehen, (2) Handlungsplanung (4 Items), (3) Hoffnung und (4) Beruhigung konstruiert. Diese bilden die Gesamtskala (5) Allgemeines Informationsbedürfnis. Das Verfahren wurde psychometrisch überprüft. Reliabilität: In zwei unabhängigen Stichproben zeigte sich eine moderate bis sehr hohe interne Konsistenz der vier Skalen sowie der Gesamtskala mit Cronbachs Alpha = .68-.90 und Cronbachs Alpha = .74-.89. Validität: Die faktorielle Validität des Fragebogens konnte mit akzeptablen Modellfits in zwei unabhängigen Stichproben bestätigt werden. Theoriekonforme Korrelationen zwischen den einzelnen Skalen und Persönlichkeitsvariablen sowie situativen Variablen belegen die Konstruktvalidität.

The 16 item-GAINS questionnaire aims at measuring individual goals of health information seeking on the four scales ‘Understanding’, ‘Action Planning’, ‘Hope’ and ‘Reassurance’, as well as measuring a general need for health information, computed as the mean score across the scales. As the questionnaire has already been validated in two large student samples using fictional health problem scenarios, the aim of this study is to determine if the instrument may also be applied in the general population to persons who have a real health problem and a resulting information need. First, our aim is to analyse basic item characteristics (difficulty, variance, and discriminatory power) as well as the internal consistency of the scales (Cronbach´s Alpha). Second, we aim to replicate the proposed factor structure of the GAINS-questionnaire in a relevant sample and therefore validate its structure. According to our theoretical assumptions from the initial validation, we expect a confirmatory factor model with five latent variables (four first order-factors representing the four goals measured by the GAINS and one second-order factor representing a general need for health information) to yield a good fit. We will also examine nomological relationships of the GAINS scales with relevant constructs to analyze construct validity.

The 16 item-GAINS questionnaire aims at measuring individual goals of health information seeking on the four scales ‘Understanding’, ‘Action Planning’, ‘Hope’ and ‘Reassurance’, as well as measuring a general need for health information, computed as the mean score across the scales. As the questionnaire has already been validated in two large student samples using fictional health problem scenarios, the aim of this study is to determine if the instrument may also be applied in the general population to persons who have a real health problem and a resulting information need. First, our aim is to analyse basic item characteristics (difficulty, variance, and discriminatory power) as well as the internal consistency of the scales (Cronbach´s Alpha). Second, we aim to replicate the proposed factor structure of the GAINS-questionnaire in a relevant sample and therefore validate its structure. According to our theoretical assumptions from the initial validation, we expect a confirmatory factor model with five latent variables (four first order-factors representing the four goals measured by the GAINS and one second-order factor representing a general need for health information) to yield a good fit. We will also examine nomological relationships of the GAINS scales with relevant constructs to analyze construct validity.