Table 2.
Standardized item ladings from exploratory (principal component) factor analysis resulting in six-factor solution
| Scales and items | Factors
|
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| MARS-5 | 0.713 | |||||
| I forget to take my medicine | 0.748 | |||||
| I change the dose of my medicine | 0.769 | |||||
| I stop taking my medicine for a while | 0.807 | |||||
| I decide to miss out a dose of my medicine | 0.704 | |||||
| I take less of my medicine than instructed | 0.713 | |||||
| BMQ-Harm | ||||||
| BG2: people who take medicines should stop their treatment for a while every now and again | −0.326 | 0.551 | ||||
| BG3: most medicines are addictive | 0.747 | |||||
| BG5: medicines do more harm than good | 0.618 | 0.345 | ||||
| BG6: all medicines are poisons | 0.649 | |||||
| BMQ-Overuse | ||||||
| BG1: doctors use too many medicines | 0.538 | |||||
| BG4: natural remedies are safer than medicines | 0.602 | −0.395 | ||||
| BG7: doctors place too much trust on medicines | 0.521 | 0.453 | ||||
| BG8: if doctors had more time with patients they would prescribe fewer medicines | 0.737 | |||||
| BMQ-Benefit | ||||||
| BG9: medicines help many people to live better lives | 0.626 | |||||
| BG10: in the future medicines will be developed to cure most diseases | 0.545 | |||||
| BG11: in most cases the benefits of medicines outweigh the risks | 0.428 | |||||
| BG12: medicines help many people to live longer | 0.794 | |||||
| SS | ||||||
| SS1: my body is very sensitive to medicines | 0.787 | |||||
| SS2: my body over-reacts to medicines | 0.799 | |||||
| SS3: I usually have stronger reactions to medicines than most people | 0.805 | |||||
| SS4: I have had a bad reaction to medicines in the past | 0.676 | |||||
| SS5: even very small amounts of medicines can upset my body | 0.333 | 0.673 | ||||
| Cumulative % variance explained after extraction | 14.1% | 26.2% | 35.1% | 42.7% | 49.8% | 56.6% |
Notes: Table values are varimax-rotated factor loadings. Factor loadings <0.3 are not presented in the table. The bold is to emphasize that loading such items are acceptable to count together for a unique factor.
Abbreviations: MARS, Medication Adherence Report Scale; BMQ, Beliefs about Medication Questionnaire; SS, sensitive soma.