title: Validation of a questionnaire to assess knowledge, attitudes and behaviors towards smoking among nursing students: a pilot study in Piedmont region.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Healthcare professionals have an important role to play both as advisers influencing smoking cessation and as role models. Despite this many of them continue to smoke. In this pilot study we have evaluated the reliability and validity of the Global Health Professional Students Survey questionnaire to examine smoking prevalence, in the Piedmont region.
  
  
  METHODS
  Reliability analysis was tested and content validity was evaluated using Cronbach's alpha to check internal consistency with the intention to obtain no misunderstanding with the results. The questionnaire composed of 6 sections for a total of 36 items, was administered among nursing students in Piedmont's hospitals and data were collected in the period between January and July 2013. Statistical analysis was performed through SPSS Statistics for Windows version 19 (IBM Corp. Released 2010. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 19.0.Armonk, NY: IBM Corp, USA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Questionnaire was administered to 265 nursing students: 77 (29.1%) men and 188 (70.9%) women. Only 37 (14%) students were over 30 year old, 57 (21.5) were in a range of 25-29 and 171 (64.5%) were in a range of 18-24 years old. Students had attended the 3th year of the course. The prevalence of current smokers was 25.3% (67). The higher value of Cronbach's Alpha resulted on the selection of 14 items (0.841), while on the other all sections (34 items in total) resulted in a value (0.786) meaning that the questionnaire has a satisfactory internal validity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This pilot study demonstrated that the questionnaire has very good reliability properties in the study and this needs to be taken into account for future extensive studies needed due to the high percentage of students in nursing who currently smoke (about a quarter of the total in our study). In addition, this study revealed that the education of students on smoking cessation is highly associated with their positive perception of their role as health model. This is a fact which may indicate the importance of adopting a core-curriculum related to the prevention and treatment of tobacco addiction among nursing students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome.
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiarini
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome.Email: rosella.saulle@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Rosella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saulle
authors.affiliation: Università del Piemonte Orientale.
authors.forename: Andrea Sophie
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Panaro
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: La Torre
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*