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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
James M. Nonnemaker, PhD, Health, Social and Economics Research, RTI International, 3040 Cornwallis Road, PO Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, M. Lyndon Haviland, DrPH, American Legacy Foundation, 1001 G Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20001, Paul Mowery, MS, Statistics, Research Triangle Institute, 2951 Flowers Road, Suite 119, Atlanta, GA 30341, Matthew C. Farrelly, PhD, Center for Economics Research, RTI International, 3040 Cornwallis Road, P. O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194, Chris Nimsch, MA, Tobacco Use Research Program, Research Triangle Institute, 3040 Cornwallis Rd, Durham, NC 27709, 919-541-8094, jnonnemaker@rti.org, and Cheryl Healton, DrPH, President and CEO, American Legacy Foundation, 1001 G Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20001.
The purpose of this study was to assess the measurement properties of a scale for measuring nicotine dependence in an adolescent population. The scale was formed by summing a combination of the following Fagerstrom-type and nicotine dependence symptomatology-type items: (1) "Do you think you would be able to quit smoking if you wanted to", (2) "How soon after you wake up do you usually smoke your first cigarette", (3) "If you are sick with a bad cold or sore throat, do you smoke cigarettes", (4) "When I go without a smoke for a few hours, I experience craving", and (5) "I sometimes have strong cravings where it feels like I'm in the grip of a force that I can't control". An exploratory factor analysis indicated that the items formed a single scale. The reliability of the scale was assessed by estimating Cronbach's alpha for the six scale items. The estimated alpha reliability was .85. The scale's validity was assessed by estimating the correlation between the scale and measures of smoking and quitting behaviors. As hypothesized, the scale was positively correlated with lifetime number of cigarettes smoked (.55), days smoked in the past 30 days (.68), cigarettes smoked per day on days smoked (.63), and the number of quit attempts (.11) and negatively correlated with the length of the quit attempt (-.21). In future work we plan to correlate the scale with cotinine levels to further establish validity as well as examine racial/ethnic and gender differences in the measurement properties of the scale.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Adolescents, Tobacco
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.