Development of an Instrument to Assess Parents' Excessive Web-Based Searches for Information Pertaining to Their Children's Health: The "Children's Health Internet Research, Parental Inventory" (CHIRPI).

Antonia Barke,Bettina K Doering

doi:10.2196/16148

Abstract

BackgroundPeople often search the internet to obtain health-related information not only for themselves but also for family members and, in particular, their children. However, for a minority of parents, such searches may become excessive and distressing. Little is known about excessive web-based searching by parents for information regarding their children’s health.ObjectiveThis study aimed to develop and validate an instrument designed to assess parents' web-based health information searching behavior, the Children’s Health Internet Research, Parental Inventory (CHIRPI).MethodsA pilot survey was used to establish the instrument (21 items). CHIRPI was validated online in a second sample (372/384, 96.9% mothers; mean age 32.7 years, SD 5.8). Item analyses, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and correlations with parents’ perception of their children’s health-related vulnerability (Child Vulnerability Scale, CVS), parental health anxiety (modified short Health Anxiety Inventory, mSHAI), and parental cyberchondria (Cyberchondria Severity Scale, CSS-15) were calculated. A subset of participants (n=73) provided retest data after 4 weeks. CHIRPI scores (total scores and subscale scores) of parents with a chronically ill child and parents who perceived their child to be vulnerable (CVS+; CVS>10) were compared with 2×2 analyses of variances (ANOVAs) with the factors Child’s Health Status (chronically ill vs healthy) and perceived vulnerability (CVS+ vs CVS−).ResultsCHIRPI’s internal consistency was standardized alpha=.89. The EFA identified three subscales: Symptom Focus (standardized alpha=.87), Implementing Advice (standardized alpha=.74) and Distress (standardized alpha=.89). The retest reliability of CHIRPI was measured as rtt=0.78. CHIRPI correlated strongly with CSS-15 (r=0.66) and mSHAI (r=0.39). The ANOVAs comparing the CHIRPI total score and the subscale scores for parents having a chronically ill child and parents perceiving their child as vulnerable revealed the main effects for perceiving one’s child as vulnerable but not for having a chronically ill child. No interactions were found. This pattern was observed for the CHIRPI total score (η2=0.053) and each subscale (Symptom Focus η2=0.012; Distress η2=0.113; and Implementing Advice η2=0.018).ConclusionsThe psychometric properties of CHIRPI are excellent. Correlations with mSHAI and CSS-15 indicate its validity. CHIRPI appears to be differentially sensitive to excessive searches owing to parents perceiving their child’s health to be vulnerable rather than to higher informational needs of parents with chronically ill children. Therefore, it may help to identify parents who search excessively for web-based health information. CHIRPI (and, in particular, the Distress subscale) seems to capture a pattern of factors related to anxious health-related cognitions, emotions, and behaviors of parents, which is also applied to their children.

Highlights

BackgroundThe internet is a ubiquitous source of information
As no instruments exist to assess excessive searching for Web-based information related to one’s children’s health, we especially considered research in the field of adult cyberchondria [47,48,49,50,51,52] and previously established measurement instruments for cyberchondria such as the Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS) [48] as the basis for item development
Most parents search on the internet for information related to their children’s health and use it to their advantage

Summary

Introduction

BackgroundThe internet is a ubiquitous source of information. In 2017, 3.6 billion people worldwide have used the internet [1]. More than half of them (55%-85%) used the internet to search for health-related information [2,3,4,5]. Some negative consequences of the relationship between health providers and patients have been reported [20,21] Examples for such consequences comprise patients requesting inappropriate treatments on the basis of inaccurate, or inaccurately understood, Web-based information and frustration on the health professional’s side (due to challenges to their expert opinion and time used to explain) and the patient’s side (due to perceived unresponsiveness of the health professional to the Web-based researches). People often search the internet to obtain health-related information for themselves and for family members and, in particular, their children. Little is known about excessive web-based searching by parents for information regarding their children’s health

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion