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. 2023 Mar 2;25(7):1310–1318. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntad030

Table 3.

Discriminant Content Validation (DCV) Task: Average Confidence Ratings Across Judges (N = 16)

Items in descending order of DCV per scale Confidence rating: “NRT Concern” Confidence rating: “NRT Necessity Belief”
Median (IQR) z a p a Median (IQR) z a p a
Concern items (11 items):
 I’m worried there will be side effects from using NRT 100(0) 3.75 <.001 −95(19) −3.52 <.001
 I’m worried I could “overdose” on nicotine when using NRT 100(8) 3.70 <.001 −99(20) −3.30 .001
 I’m worried NRT could be addictive 100(8) 3.62 <.001 −91(33) −3.54 <.001
 It’s dangerous to keep using NRT if I smoke during a quit attempt 100(10) 3.62 <.001 −86(33) −2.72 .006
 I’m worried I might get more nicotine from NRT than from smoking 100(9) 3.59 <.001 −80(53) −2.59 .010
 NRT would be unpleasant to use e.g. taste bad 95(23) 3.57 <.001 −94(24) −3.54 <.001
 Nicotine is harmful to my baby 100(16) 3.46 .001 −90(27) −2.40 .017
 Nicotine is the most harmful part of cigarettes 95(36) 2.88 .004 −91(30) −3.28 .001
 NRT is safe for my baby 100(87) 2.15 .032 −90(55) −2.79 .005
 I’m worried NRT won’t give me enough nicotine to cope with my cravings 81(46) 2.08 .037 39(153) −0.39 .698
 I’d want to use only a small amount of NRT while pregnant 75(104) 1.24 .214 −39(134) 0.18 .856
Necessity belief items (11 items):
 Quitting smoking would be impossible for me without NRT −93(27) −2.81 .005 100(18) 3.54 <.001
 NRT will improve my chances of quitting smoking in pregnancy −86(49) −2.58 .010 91(17) 3.54 <.001
 NRT will help me avoid smoking in places and situations where I’d usually smoke −90(30) −2.87 .004 85(41) 3.53 <.001
 NRT will help me avoid smoking when I’m stressed −80(126) −1.97 .049 80(39) 3.32 .001
 NRT will control my cravings to smoke −83(119) −2.32 .021 83(44) 3.11 .002
 I’d only need to use NRT for a few weeks −92(128) −2.89 .004 100(9) 3.01 .003
 For NRT to work, I’d only need to use it when I feel like I need it −86(56) −2.85 .004 93(25) 2.91 .004
 NRT will relieve my discomfort from quitting smoking (withdrawal symptoms) −67(99) −1.92 .055 85(50) 2.55 .011
 If my quit attempt is going well, I’d want to test if I could do without NRT −85(50) −2.60 .009 85(36) 1.99 .046
 My baby’s health would improve if I used NRT 15(188) −0.10 .917 53(140) 1.19 .233
 My health would improve if I used NRT 71(176) −0.03 .979 75(177) 0.91 .362
Other (dummy) items (2 items):
 I’d struggle to remember to use NRT regularly (self-efficacy) −10(193) −0.11 .916 −55(159) −1.27 .204
 Doctors and midwives approve of using NRT in pregnancy (subjective norm) 56(156) 0.67 .501 −63(168) −0.91 .364

Medians presented as distributions significantly non-normal for all confidence ratings (Shapiro–Wilk tests).

italic text denotes item removed as a result of DCV task. NRT = nicotine replacement therapy.

aFrom one-sample Wilcoxon tests (2-tailed, α = 0.05), where hypothesized median = 0.