Are patients willing to take a more active role? Questionnaires to measure patients' willingness to be empowered

Objective: One crucial prerequisite for increased patient empowerment is the willingness among patients to take a more active role. The aim of this study was to develop questionnaires for measuring a patient's willingness to be empowered in general and by using e-health.

Methods: The study was based on a random sample from an online panel. The 800 responders were Swedish citizens and reflected the internet-using population in Sweden regarding age, gender, income, and education. The measurement properties were evaluated according to the Rasch Measurement Theory.

Results: The analyses showed two questionnaires with adequate fit to the basic measurement model and with high reliability (PSI 0.84 and 0.89, respectively).

Conclusion: We conclude that this study generated two questionnaires with an intuitive order of items illustrating an understandable progression of willingness to be empowered in general as well as for e-health.

Practice implications: The suggested questionnaires are valuable tools supporting the effort to tailor empowerment strategies to meet the patient's willingness. Questionnaires will also be valuable for evaluating strategies for supporting willingness, studying factors related to willingness and potential inequalities due to e.g. varying digital literacy, and for enabling identification of patient stereotypes using cluster analyses.