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Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol 60, Issue 4 492-497, Copyright © 1998 by American Psychosomatic Society

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

The development of a cognitive scale for functional bowel disorders

BB Toner, N Stuckless, A Ali, F Downie, S Emmott and D Akman
Women's Mental Health Research Programme, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

OBJECTIVE: The importance of psychosocial factors in patients with Functional Bowel Disorders (FBD) has been well-established. However, most psychosocial measures used in research with FBD patients were not designed or validated on this population. A recent international team report recommended that psychosocial measures be developed to increase our understanding and treatment of FBD. The purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid instrument designed specifically to assess cognitions of patients with FBD. METHOD: An initial set of 204 scale items was generated from a large pool of thought diaries from patients diagnosed with FBD. Items were additionally refined using several methods, including consultation with a multidisciplinary team of international experts on FBD. The remaining 95 items were administered, along with a set of validating questionnaires, to a new sample of 75 FBD patients in Canada and the United States. RESULTS: The findings indicate that the final 25-item scale has high reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .93; inter-item correlation = .36); high concurrent criterion validity evidenced by the correlation of the scale with a global rating of life interference caused by bowel symptoms (r = .71; p<.001); acceptable convergent validity evidenced by the correlation of the scale with the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (r = .38; p<.01); high content validity and face validity; and minimal social desirability contamination (r = .15; NS). CONCLUSIONS: The Cognitive Scale for Functional Bowel Disorders is a valid and reliable scale that can be used as an outcome measure in evaluating the efficacy of different forms of psychotherapeutic intervention for FBD, and can also serve as a helpful assessment tool for health professionals working with patients diagnosed with FBD.


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 Feminism PsychologyHome page
D. E. Akman, B. B. Toner, N. Stuckless, A. Ali, S. D. Emmott, and F. P. Downie
Feminist Issues in Research Methodology: The Development of a Cognitive Scale
Feminism Psychology, May 1, 2001; 11(2): 209 - 227.
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Copyright © 1998 by the American Psychosomatic Society