National cross-sectional survey of US adults to assess the reliability of current and lifetime cannabis smoking

Objective The objective is to examine the test–retest reliability and internal reliability of six self-report questions assessing both current (past 30 days) and lifetime cannabis smoking in an internet survey in the adult US population.Design Cross-sectional national survey.Participants Out of 957...

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Main Authors: Salomeh Keyhani, Marzieh Vali, Janet Tang, Emily Lum, Annie Ryder, Beth E Cohen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2024-08-01
Series:BMJ Open
Online Access:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/14/8/e078245.full
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author Salomeh Keyhani
Marzieh Vali
Janet Tang
Emily Lum
Annie Ryder
Beth E Cohen
author_facet Salomeh Keyhani
Marzieh Vali
Janet Tang
Emily Lum
Annie Ryder
Beth E Cohen
author_sort Salomeh Keyhani
collection DOAJ
description Objective The objective is to examine the test–retest reliability and internal reliability of six self-report questions assessing both current (past 30 days) and lifetime cannabis smoking in an internet survey in the adult US population.Design Cross-sectional national survey.Participants Out of 957 US adults who completed a national 2020 survey administered through Ipsos KnowledgePanel, 557 completed a second survey (‘reliability survey’) aimed at assessing the test–retest and internal reliability of questions asking about current and lifetime cannabis smoking. The sample size used in the analysis for the six self-report questions varied and was dependent on respondents answering the questions in both the 2020 survey and the reliability survey.Primary outcome measure Test–retest and internal reliability of six self-report questions asking about current and lifetime cannabis smoking.Results Among respondents who had smoked cannabis in the past 30 days, 33.8% were aged 18–34, 29.7% were 35–49, 27.7% were 50–64 and 8.8% were 65 or older. Current cannabis smokers were primarily men (59.5%) and white (63.0%). Almost half of current cannabis smokers had a high school diploma or less followed by some college and a bachelor’s degree or higher (45.7%, 30.6%, 23.8%, respectively). The question assessing number of days participants smoked cannabis in the past 30 days demonstrated good test–retest (r=0.87) and excellent internal reliability (α=0.94). The questions assessing the number of years, the most common form of use and the number of times participants smoked cannabis over their lifetime also demonstrated test–retest (r=0.77 (acceptable), r=0.75 (acceptable) and κ=0.65 (substantial), respectively) and excellent-to-good internal reliability (α=0.91, α=0.87 and α=0.88, respectively).Conclusions We found simple questions assessing current and lifetime cannabis use to demonstrate both test–retest reliability and internal reliability. These questions can serve as a simple framework for clinicians to evaluate the frequency of cannabis smoking in their patients. Future work should examine if these simple frequency measures of smoking cannabis are associated with adverse health outcomes.
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spelling doaj-art-9db4db03d6a44f11afbe11d2f2b5da2c2024-12-17T05:35:09ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552024-08-0114810.1136/bmjopen-2023-078245National cross-sectional survey of US adults to assess the reliability of current and lifetime cannabis smokingSalomeh Keyhani0Marzieh Vali1Janet Tang2Emily Lum3Annie Ryder4Beth E Cohen5Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Precision Monitoring to Transform Care (PRISM) Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI), Indianapolis, Indiana, USAGeneral Internal Medicine, San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USADepartment of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USANorthern California Institute for Research and Education, San Francisco, California, USAThe University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USAUniversity of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USAObjective The objective is to examine the test–retest reliability and internal reliability of six self-report questions assessing both current (past 30 days) and lifetime cannabis smoking in an internet survey in the adult US population.Design Cross-sectional national survey.Participants Out of 957 US adults who completed a national 2020 survey administered through Ipsos KnowledgePanel, 557 completed a second survey (‘reliability survey’) aimed at assessing the test–retest and internal reliability of questions asking about current and lifetime cannabis smoking. The sample size used in the analysis for the six self-report questions varied and was dependent on respondents answering the questions in both the 2020 survey and the reliability survey.Primary outcome measure Test–retest and internal reliability of six self-report questions asking about current and lifetime cannabis smoking.Results Among respondents who had smoked cannabis in the past 30 days, 33.8% were aged 18–34, 29.7% were 35–49, 27.7% were 50–64 and 8.8% were 65 or older. Current cannabis smokers were primarily men (59.5%) and white (63.0%). Almost half of current cannabis smokers had a high school diploma or less followed by some college and a bachelor’s degree or higher (45.7%, 30.6%, 23.8%, respectively). The question assessing number of days participants smoked cannabis in the past 30 days demonstrated good test–retest (r=0.87) and excellent internal reliability (α=0.94). The questions assessing the number of years, the most common form of use and the number of times participants smoked cannabis over their lifetime also demonstrated test–retest (r=0.77 (acceptable), r=0.75 (acceptable) and κ=0.65 (substantial), respectively) and excellent-to-good internal reliability (α=0.91, α=0.87 and α=0.88, respectively).Conclusions We found simple questions assessing current and lifetime cannabis use to demonstrate both test–retest reliability and internal reliability. These questions can serve as a simple framework for clinicians to evaluate the frequency of cannabis smoking in their patients. Future work should examine if these simple frequency measures of smoking cannabis are associated with adverse health outcomes.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/14/8/e078245.full
spellingShingle Salomeh Keyhani
Marzieh Vali
Janet Tang
Emily Lum
Annie Ryder
Beth E Cohen
National cross-sectional survey of US adults to assess the reliability of current and lifetime cannabis smoking
BMJ Open
title National cross-sectional survey of US adults to assess the reliability of current and lifetime cannabis smoking
title_full National cross-sectional survey of US adults to assess the reliability of current and lifetime cannabis smoking
title_fullStr National cross-sectional survey of US adults to assess the reliability of current and lifetime cannabis smoking
title_full_unstemmed National cross-sectional survey of US adults to assess the reliability of current and lifetime cannabis smoking
title_short National cross-sectional survey of US adults to assess the reliability of current and lifetime cannabis smoking
title_sort national cross sectional survey of us adults to assess the reliability of current and lifetime cannabis smoking
url https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/14/8/e078245.full
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