| Popis: |
A substantial body of research has demonstrated the impact of health risk behaviors on physical and mental health. Self-report questionnaires are often utilized in the measurement of health risk behaviors in a variety of research contexts. Although a number of questionnaires have been developed to measure specific, individual behaviors, few attempts have been made to create a questionnaire that measures multiple health behaviors in the general adult population. The purpose of the present study was to develop the Health Risk Behaviors Inventory (HRBI), a brief questionnaire which evaluates 7 health risk behaviors (physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, inadequate sleep, cigarette smoking, alcohol use, illicit drug use, and risky sexual behaviors) over the past month. The pilot version of the HRBI was administered to 340 undergraduates to evaluate its reliability and validity with several validated health behavior questionnaires as well as a measure of physical and mental health (SF-36). Overall, these pilot data demonstrated good reliability and validity, providing support for the utility of the HRBI as a health behavior measure. Concurrently, interviews were conducted with 39 undergraduates in order to further inform the HRBI’s content and format. Based on these pilot data, the HRBI items were modified to clarify the content and maximize the psychometric properties of the HRBI while creating a brief scale. The revised 28-item HRBI was then completed by another 335 undergraduates along with the additional health behavior questionnaires and the SF-36. These data revealed some substantial improvements in the sexual behavior subscale, but also revealed generally weaker reliability and validity in the revised HRBI compared to the pilot HRBI. Thus, further revisions are required to ensure an accurate and psychometrically sound assessment of health risk behaviors. |
