The Development and Testing of a Perinatal Tobacco, Attitudes, and Behaviors Survey (PTABS).

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Accurate assessment of tobacco use in pregnant smokers is key to effective nursing intervention. There is a lack of valid and reliable tools easily integrated into prenatal care. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a perinatal survey, guided by the Health Promotion Model (HPM). METHODS The survey was tested with 107 pregnant women via iPad. Urine cotinine assays and a process evaluation were conducted. RESULTS Reliability yielded a Cronbach's alpha of .873 for the ever-smoker sample and .835 for the total sample. Factors dovetailed with HPM constructs. CONCLUSIONS Perinatal Tobacco, Attitudes, and Behaviors Survey (PTABS) exhibits high reliability and validity and is easily utilized. Updates need to include questions on all nicotine products and to be streamlined. With accurate identification of nicotine users nurses can provide targeted interventions early in pregnancy.