RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF THE AGGREGATE METHOD OF DETERMINING NUMBER OF CIGARETTES SMOKED PER DAY

The authors evaluated the reliability of two pretreatment assessments (screening and intake) of cigarettes smoked per day (CPD) by the commo nly used aggregate method The validity of the aggregate method was als o determined by comparison with results of the timeline followback? (T LFB) method for the identical periods. The study participants were 49 outpatients undergoing nicotine patch treatment. The reliability of th e two aggregate method evaluations of CPD was quite high by Pearson pr oduct-moment correlation (r) and good when based on the intraclass cor relation. Correspondence between the CPD assessments based on the aggr egate and TI;FB methods for the two time-points ranged from fair (scre ening) to good (intake). Overall, the study findings indicate that the aggregate method provides reasonably consistent data.