title: Design and validation of a questionnaire for measuring perceived risk of skin cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A perceived risk of cancer encourages preventive behavior while the lack of such a perception is a barrier to risk reduction. There are no instruments in Spanish to measure this perceived risk and thus quantify response to interventions for preventing this disease at a population level. The aim of this study was to design and validate a self-administered questionnaire for measuring the perceived risk of skin cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  A self-administered questionnaire with a visual Likert-type scale was designed based on the results of the analysis of the content of a survey performed in 100 patients in the Dr. Ladislao de la Pascua Skin Clinic, Distrito Federal México, Mexico. Subsequently, the questionnaire was administered to a sample of 359 adult patients who attended the clinic for the first time. As no gold standard exists for measuring the perceived risk of skin cancer, the construct was validated through factor analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final questionnaire had 18 items. The internal consistency measured with Cronbach α was 0.824 overall. In the factor analysis, 4 factors (denoted as affective, behavioral, severity, and susceptibility) and an indicator of risk accounted for 65.133% of the variance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The psychometric properties of the scale were appropriate for measuring the perception of risk in adult patients (aged 18 years or more) who attended the dermatology clinic.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Medicina, División de Estudios de Posgrado, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Centro Dermatológico Dr. Ladislao de la Pascua, Secretaría de Salud del Distrito Federal, México DF, México. Electronic address: marthams@prodigy.net.mx.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Morales-Sánchez
authors.affiliation: Coordinación de Programas Médicos, División de Excelencia Clínica CUMAE, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, México DF, México.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Peralta-Pedrero
authors.affiliation: Centro Dermatológico Dr. Ladislao de la Pascua, Secretaría de Salud del Distrito Federal, México DF, México.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Domínguez-Gómez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008800:Mexico; D012306:Risk; D012878:Skin Neoplasms; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Cáncer de piel; Percepción de riesgo; Risk perception; Skin cancer; Validación; Validation