The "extent of information desired"-scale in psychiatric in-patients: a behavioural approach.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the "extent of information desired" (EID)-scale through a behavioural approach.

Methods: Standardised interviews consisting of the EID-scale and four (half) open questions were conducted in a convenience sample of psychiatric in-patients and information seeking behaviour was measured. At the same time, socially desirable behaviour was assessed by means of Marlowe-Crowne social desirability (MCSD).

Results: 39 patients were interviewed. The behavioural approach yielded mixed results, but there was no correlation between EID- and MCSD-scores.

Discussion: From the calculated correlations information seeking behaviour is perceived as socially undesirable, whereas EID-scores seem unaffected by social desirability.

Conclusion: It is difficult to define independent variables which would reflect information seeking behaviour. The ones we used might have been confounded. We found a correlation between the EID-scale used and the information seeking behaviour, without a strong correlation with social desirability.

Practice Implications: The EID-scale used may predict patients' desire for information within a well-defined clinical context. The step to validation requires more robustness of the research model and a better profiling of patients.