Illness Cognitions Scale (ICS)

The Illness Cognitions Scale (ICS), is a validated a metric of abnormal illness belief and behaviour.

A person's attitude to and beliefs about their illness may contribute to recovery and prognosis.

While some degree of acceptance of illness and its impact is necessary to integrate the presence of a chronic disorder into one's lifestyle and adhere to necessary components of illness management, some individuals can become stuck in the quagmire of illness, where adaptation to illness can morph into maladaptive beliefs and behaviour.

At present, there are few measures that assess illness behaviour, attitudes, and beliefs about illness, and they tend to pivot around psychosomatic illness rather than core psychiatric illness.

The ICS has a Cronbach's alpha of 0.858, and a factor analysis suggested the presence of only one factor.

The ICS is an internally validated scale that measures a patient's difficulty adjusting out of the sick role, consisting of 17 items, measuring a single construct.