Table 6 Condition-specific and general changes for the BMQ
From: The challenges of assessing patients' medication beliefs: a qualitative study
Item content | Condition-specific changes | General changes to instructions/terminology |
Specific necessity | Ensure that terminology used to describe the condition maps onto participants’ perceptions of their condition. | A clarifying statement should precede specific necessity items. E.g. ‘Please refer to your personal views about the impact of the medicines on your overall future health, not the impact of potential medication side-effects on future health’ |
Need to differentiate between the impact of medication on physical symptoms and psychological/social well-being | A clarifying statement should precede specific necessity items. E.g. ‘You may be using a different medication in the future. However please refer to your personal views about the medication currently prescribed for you’ | |
Specific concerns | Need to differentiate between: 1.Short- and long-term medication side-effects 2.Current and future medication disruptions to daily life 3.Physical and psychological medication dependency | A clarifying statement should precede specific concern items. E.g. ‘Some people choose not to use their medication as prescribed. However please imagine that you are using your medication as prescribed and indicate whether this would make you experience feelings of worry’ |
Identify additional condition-specific beliefs (e.g. overly restrictive access to medications) | A clarifying statement should precede specific concern items. E.g. ‘Please refer to your personal views about your medicines, not your condition’ | |
The specific concern item ‘My psoriasis medications are a mystery to me’ should be rephrased. E.g. ‘I sometimes experience uncertainty about my medicines and how they work’ | ||
General concerns |  | Ensure the phrase ‘in general’ precedes each item. E.g. ‘In general, doctors use too many medicines’ |
Item response choice | Condition-specific changes | General changes to instructions/terminology |
All BMQ domains |  | For all BMQ items, the item response choice ‘uncertain’ should be changed to ‘don’t know’ |