Development of a prenatal smoking cessation counseling scale for public health nurses in Japan.

Meng Li,Keiko Koide,Miho Tanaka,Reiko Okamoto,Misaki Kiya

doi:10.18332/tid/140088

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONThis study aimed to develop a scale to measure prenatal smoking cessation counseling for Japanese public health nurses (PHNs).METHODSA cross-sectional study was conducted via an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire. The sample included 1933 PHNs working in 424 municipal health centers nationwide, which were randomly selected. We created the draft scale based on semi-structured interviews, previous studies, and preliminary survey. Additionally, we conducted back translation for English version of the draft scale to be applicable in English countries. The analytic strategy consisted of item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and differentiation by ‘known groups’.RESULTSA total of 550 responses (28.5%) were included in the analysis. Most of the respondents were female (98.2%) and the mean age was 37.5±9.37 years. In the exploratory factor analysis, two factors were extracted and the factor loadings for all items were greater than 0.40. The first factor with eleven items was named as ‘basic counseling’ and the second factor with seven items was named as ‘advanced counseling’. The Cronbach’s alpha of the scale was 0.918, and the cumulative contribution was 44.908%. Multiple comparisons by experience years working as a PHN revealed significant differences in the scale and two factors.CONCLUSIONSIn this study, we initially developed the prenatal smoking cessation counseling scale for Japanese PHNs, and the reliability and validity of the scale were considered to be acceptable.

Highlights

This study aimed to develop a scale to measure prenatal smoking cessation counseling for Japanese public health nurses (PHNs)
Of 27 PHNs to obtain opinions on the contents and wordings, and completed the draft scale based on the opinions and our considerations
Of the questionnaires mailed to PHNs, 599 (31.0%) responses were received of which 49 were excluded because they missed an answer or had multiple answers for the questions

Summary

Introduction

This study aimed to develop a scale to measure prenatal smoking cessation counseling for Japanese public health nurses (PHNs). In Japan, the prevalence of maternal smoking during pregnancy is estimated to be between 5.1% and 7.5%12, and the prevalence of paternal smoking is reported to be 47% in the first trimester and 46% in the second and third trimesters[13] In light of this troubling fact, the Japanese government has enacted several national-level legal regulations and policies, such as ‘Health Japan 21’ and ‘Health Promotion Act’ where reducing maternal smoking and SHS exposure during pregnancy were recorded[14,15]. Previous study has reported that PHNs can reduce maternal smoking and SHS exposure during pregnancy because they have many opportunities, such as the issuance of maternal and child health handbook, telephone counseling, classroom sessions, home visits, and health checkups of infants, to engage with pregnant women[18]. Psychological interventions should be prioritized to help women to quit smoking, and the 5As model can be applicable for smoking cessation intervention during pregnancy

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