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Table 1 Pattern matrix for the five-factor solution obtained through exploratory factor analysis

From: Exploring laypeople’s epistemic beliefs about medicine – a factor-analytic survey study

 

Factor

    
 

1

2

3

4

5

Research in medicine has shown that there is one clear answer to most problems.

.541

    

If one has to decide between different therapy advices, one should only heed the physician’s advice.

.533

    

If physicians address themselves to the investigation of a question, they will find the correct answer to almost all questions.

.507

    

Medical knowledge is indefeasible.

.445

    

If different physicians predict the progress of a person’s disease, they almost always agree.

.412

    

In medicine, facts speak for themselves.

.386

    

Some day medical researchers will be able to clear up all medical questions.

.355

    

Medical textbooks almost always contain reliable statements with regard to medical research.

 

-.719

   

Medical textbooks are a trustable source for gathering medical findings.

 

-.718

   

One can almost always receive verified medical information from medical textbooks.

 

-.583

   

One should almost always critically scrutinize medical information from textbooks.

 

.522

   

One can almost always receive verified medical information from the Internet.

  

.766

  

The Internet almost always contains reliable statements with regard to medical research.

  

.710

  

The Internet is a trustable source for gathering medical findings.

  

.538

  

One should almost always critically scrutinize medical information from the Internet.

  

-.486

  

Finally one can only trust the medical advice of someone who has the (same) disease.

   

.663

 

People who have a disease usually know better what to do than physicians.

   

.569

 

The knowledge gained by medical research is mostly not applicable to everyday life. It only refers to idealized experiments in the laboratory.

   

.466

 

In choosing a therapy one should only follow the advices of a general practitioner, even though the latest medical research potentially shows different results.

   

.421

 

Scientific theories in medicine, that we currently assume to be right, can be confuted in the future.

    

.599

Even medical knowledge has to be revised over and over.

    

.563

The viewpoints in medical research change constantly.

    

.456

Theories in medicine can be confuted anytime.

    

.416

Even though medical research deals intensively with the origin of different diseases like for example cancer, it does not find one clearly correct explanation.

    

.374

Number of items per factor

7

4

4

4

5

Cronbach’s α

.69

.73

.74

.61

.60

  1. Note: Pattern matrix, EFA, oblimin rotation, delta = 0, Maximum-Likelihood extraction. The factor analysis was conducted on the original item scores. For the calculation of sum scores for the five factors, several items need to be recoded (see section “Recoding of the items for further analyses”).