Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #103143

G. Scott Acton, PhD, Department of Psychology, Rochester Institute of Technology, 92 Lomb Memorial Drive, Rochester, NY 14623-5604, (585) 475-2422, acton@mail.rit.edu, Janice Y. Tsoh, PhD, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco, 401 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143, and Hiroyuki Yamada, PhD, Berkeley Evaluation & Assessment Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 2000 Center Street, Suite 301, Berkeley, CA 94704.

The Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) assesses physical nicotine dependence. This study compared a Chinese translation of the FTND with the English version. A community sample of 409 American smokers completed the assessment in either English (n = 241) or Chinese (n = 167). Item response theory analyses indicated differential item functioning based on language, implying that the raw scores on the FTND in the two language groups are not directly comparable. Item locations, person distributions, and a score equivalence index for converting raw scores into latent person locations for each version, making them equivalent, are presented. Applications of the dimension/category framework (De Boeck, Wilson, & Acton, 2005) argued against viewing DSM-IV nicotine dependence as a discrete category, instead suggesting that at the latent level DSM-IV nicotine dependence is a matter of degree. Assessment implications for a stepped-care model of treatment are discussed.

Learning Objectives:

• Upon review of this presentation, one should be able to identify the relations between diagnosed nicotine dependence and the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence.

Keywords: Tobacco, Asian Americans

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.