Psychometric Analysis of a Microenvironment Secondhand Smoke Exposure Questionnaire

Area of Science:

• Psychometric analysis
• Tobacco control research
• Public health

Background:

• Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure is a significant public health concern.
• Existing questionnaires require validation for diverse environments.
• Assessing SHS exposure in home, work, and social settings is crucial for intervention development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To psychometrically analyze an adapted secondhand smoke (SHS) questionnaire.
• To test the three-component structure (home, work, social) of the original SHS scale.
• To establish the validity and reliability of a shortened SHS exposure questionnaire.

Main Methods:

• Administered a 15-item questionnaire to 839 daily smokers.
• Conducted confirmatory factor analysis and parallel analysis.
• Assessed internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) and criterion/predictive validity using biomarkers and established scales.

Main Results:

• A 10-item scale emerged after removing five non-loading items.
• The shortened scale demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas: 0.86, 0.77, 0.67).
• The questionnaire showed predictive validity for smoke exposure beyond self-reported use.

Conclusions:

• A 10-item scale reliably measures SHS exposure across different environments.
• The adapted questionnaire is suitable for use in future research and intervention studies.
• Findings support the use of this concise tool for assessing SHS exposure.