Development and assessment of modified glover nilsson vaping behavioural questionnaire among malaysian electronic cigarettes users

Abstract

The Glover Nilsson smoking Behavioural Questionnaire (GNSBQ) is the commonly used scale to assess the behavioural nicotine dependence through conventional tobacco cigarettes (TCG). But the GNSBQ does not evaluate the subject's behavioural dependence to nicotine that administered via electronic cigarette (EC). The study aim was to develop and assess an equivalent modified Glover Nilsson vaping behavioural questionnaire (GNVBQ) which measures the nicotine behavioural dependency via EC. The modified developed GNVBQ scale is identical to the original GNSBQ. The scale scores indicate the EC nicotine behavioural dependency ranking as slight (1-6), mild (7-11), moderate (12-22), strong (23-33) and very strong (> 33). The scale piloted among 15 EC single users i.e. used only EC. The assessment of the scale did among 69 EC single users and observed their nicotine behavioural dependency status for a one-year period. The modified scale revealed a satisfactory Cronbach's alpha value of 0.74. Further test-retest reliability of the scale showed an acceptable spearman's rank correlation coefficient value of 0.75 (p > 0.05). A one-year observation showed that out of 69 EC single users, 11 single users completely stopped nicotine intake. The EC users who completely stopped nicotine intake after one year had a low nicotine behavioural dependency scores between 7-11 measured by the modified GNVBQ scale. The modified GNVBQ scale has accurately identified the behavioural dependence of nicotine that administered via EC. Therefore, as per the current study results, the modified GNVBQ scale may useful to predict the nicotine behavioural dependency that administered through various EC products. However, the scale needs to be validated further with a large sample size for further robust authentication.