Table 2.

Selection of characteristics for the SeMaS questionnaire

Patient characteristics identified in literature review	Mentioned in focus group interviews with professionals and/or patients	Scientific evidence for impact on self-management	Validated measure available	Included in SeMaS	Number of items in SeMaS
Educational level	Yes	1, 2	Yes	Yes	1
Sex	Yes	2	Yes	Yes	1
Age	Yes	2	Yes	Yes	1
Perceived burden of disease	Yes	2	Yes (inverse)	Yes	1
Self-efficacy	Yes	1, 2	Yes	Yes	2
Social support	Yes	1, 2	Yes	Yes	1 (6 subitems)
Depression/depressive symptoms	Yes	1, 2	Yes	Yes	3
Health literacy	Yes	2	Yes	No	-
Coping	Yes	2	Yes	Yes	9
Sense of self esteem	Yes	2	No	No	-
Confidence in self care	Yes	2	No	No	-
Locus of control	Yes	-	Yes	Yes	2
Anxiety	No (added by stakeholders)	-	Yes	Yes	4

Level of scientific evidence: 1 = comparative research; 2 = non-comparative, or qualitative research. Only characteristics that were named in the focus groups or stakeholder group and that were included in the questionnaire are shown here. See Additional file 1 for the entire list of characteristics found in the literature