Psychometric Testing of the Irrational Health Belief Scale in Medical Students

Background and Irrational health beliefs are recognized as one of the main variables in healthy lifestyle. Despite the leading role of dysfunctional assumptions such as irrational health beliefs in healthy behaviors and lifestyle, there is no appropriate scale for their assessment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Irrational Health Belief Scale.
The sample consisted of 100 medical students in Guilan University of Medical Sciences. They completed the Irrational Health Belief scale consisting of 20 items. The psychometric properties were examined by exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis.
The psychometric evaluation included data quality, factor structure, construct validity, and internal consistency. Unidimensionality was supported by exploratory factor analysis. The CFA results indicated sufficient model fit. KMO rate was 0.833 in the qualitative factor analysis. Also, the Bartlett's test of significance level was less than 5%. Cronbach alpha rate was calculated as 0.86 and the test-retest reliability of the scale was 0.64.
This study proved appropriate psychometric properties of the Irrational Health Belief Scale that could facilitate assessment of irrational health beliefs. Therefore, it could be administered to measure irrational health beliefs in medical students.