Table 3 Self-Care Decisions Inventory item significant (p < 0.05) Geomin loadings and multidimensional structure

Others gave me advice

Others helped me to make a decision

Different people gave different advice about my symptom

Someone else recognized the symptom before I did

I thought about decisions I made in the past when I had a similar symptom

The symptom got worse suddenly

When I had this symptom, I knew something was wrong

The symptom was severe or bothersome

I felt like something bad was going to happen

I felt I needed to make a decision quickly

The symptom was different than what I expected

It wasn’t clear to me what was causing the symptom

I didn’t know what the symptom meant

I thought the symptom might be due to something else

I wasn’t sure how important the symptom was

When I had the symptom, I didn’t understand what was happening

The symptom was new to me

I recognized this symptom from the last time I had it

The symptom was different than the last time I had it

I felt too sad to make a decision

My thinking was not clear so I could not make a decision

I felt too anxious to make a decision

I didn’t feel well enough to make a decision

I felt too tired to make a decision

I felt uncertain about what to do

Other things were more important at the time

I thought I could wait to make a decision

I felt that the symptom was nothing to worry about

The symptom changed slowly

I thought I could tolerate the symptom

Someone else needed my attention

I thought the symptom would go away on its own

I felt embarrassed about my symptom

I didn’t want to burden my family

I didn’t want people to know about my symptom