The Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of the Smoking Urge Questionnaire in the General Population

• Published in: Caspian journal of neurological sciences Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 202 - 208
• Main Authors: Homa Zarrabi, Mohammad Hassan Novin, Robabeh Soleimani, Bita Shirkhan Maleki, Samin Khoshnoud Speily
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Guilan University of Medical Sciences 01-07-2024
• Subjects: craving; psychometrics; smokers; smoking cessation
• ISSN: 2423-4818

Background: The urgent need and craving for smoking are significant aspects of smoking cessation syndrome, often leading to high relapse rates. Therefore, evaluating smokers’ cravings and immediate needs is essential, and the questionnaire on smoking urges (QSU) is a remarkable instrument for this purpose.  Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Persian version of QSU among the general population. Materials & Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The studied population includes 200 smokers from the general population referred to Shafa Hospital, Rasht City, Iran, in 2023. The QSU was translated and reviewed by translators and bilingual experts to achieve the final Persian version. We assessed the content validity, reliability, and factor analysis of QSU. The IBM SPSS software, version 26 was used for data analysis. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis was performed using Smart PLS software, version 3.2.9. Results: The results showed that the content validity rate was 0.94. The QSU exhibited a Cronbach α of 0.892, indicating high internal stability of the scale. After presenting the confirmatory factor model, 2 questions from the first factor and 4 questions from the second factor were removed due to their factor loadings of <0.3. The factor loadings of the items of the QSU in the first subscale were between 0.353 and 0.787 and in the second subscale were between 0.248 and 0.706.  Conclusion: This study showed that QSU is reliable for measuring the “urgent need to smoke” in the Persian-speaking community.