Intolerance for Smoking Abstinence Questionnaire: Psychometric properties and relationship to tobacco dependence and abstinence

Abstract

While smokers' ability to tolerate emotional or physical distress has been associated with length of smoking cessation, there is no measure of ability to tolerate smoking abstinence discomfort specifically, which may be more heuristic than a measure of tolerance of general emotional stress or physical discomfort. Methods Questionnaires completed by 300 smokers assessed inability to tolerate smoking abstinence discomfort (IDQ-S), general physical discomfort (IDQ-P), and general emotional discomfort (IDQ-E), so that shared variance among these measures could be assessed. Results The IDQ-S has three reliable components: withdrawal Intolerance, Lack of Cognitive Coping, and Pain Intolerance. The 14-item IDQ-P and 9-item IDQ-E each consist of one reliable component. Intercorrelations suggest only modest shared variance. Support for construct and discriminant validity was seen. Two scales of the IDQ-S showed excellent convergent validity, correlating with smoking use, dependence, motivation, and length of past smoking cessation, while IDQ-P and IDQ-E correlated with few indices of use or dependence and not with smoking cessation. Conclusions The final 17-item IDQ-S with two scales is reliable and valid, and more heuristic than measures of general physical or emotional discomfort intolerance as a correlate of motivation and past success with smoking cessation.