School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Abstract

Background:

Cognitive interviewing is the practice of systematically collecting feedback about survey items from members of the priority population, with the goal of identifying and rectifying problems to increase the comprehensibility of the survey. Evidence is limited on the extent to which this method of pretesting improves survey items.

Objective:

The current study examined the utility of incorporating cognitive interviewing to improve the Spanish translations of two measures of tobacco dependence.

Methods:

Items from the Spanish versions of the Wisconsin Inventory of Smoking Dependence Motives (68 items) and Nicotine Dependence Syndrome Scale (19 items) were subjected to cognitive interviews with Spanish-speaking smokers. Problematic items were revised based on participant feedback and re-assessed in a second round of interviews (N = 23, 78.3% male; 21.7% female).

Results:

Twenty-three of the 87 items demonstrated comprehension problems, and 67 items elicited at least one problem report. Number of problems were significantly fewer pre- vs. post- revision (t [90] = 6.55, p < .001).

Conclusions:

In combination with standard translation procedures, cognitive interviewing with the priority population appears to be a useful method for ensuring comprehensible and relevant item content.

Publication Title

The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse

DOI

10.1080/00952990.2021.1998514

Included in

Social Work Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.