Validity and Population Analysis of a Smoking Cessation Instrument

This report assesses the validity of a smoking cessation instrument designed to evaluate the average effect of quitting smoking. The analysis employs the Criterion-Related Validity method, examining the relationship between the instrument's measures and established theoretical criteria, such as the impact of retail outlet proximity on smoking behavior and the use of smoking cessation products. The report draws on various research studies to substantiate the instrument's theoretical validity, highlighting the correlation between consumer behavior and access to tobacco products. The report also discusses the population for which the instrument would be most applicable, considering factors like smoking status, demographic parameters, and the influence of retail environments. By examining the instrument's ability to accurately measure the theoretical construct, the report provides a comprehensive evaluation of its strength and potential impact on public health research and interventions.

Question 1
A. Assess the validity of the proposed instrument. Describe clearly how the
researcher can assess the strength of the instrument.
The main notion of consumers rule claims that individual consumers are aware about what items
are in their best interests to consume, though consumers should be conscious about the risks and
apprehend all the costs and benefits associated with those, result of the private consumption
choices is the most proficient allocation of society’s limited resources. Hence, it is essential to
meet the supply and demand equilibrium.
Many research studies suggested the relation between consumption and accessibility of
tobacco products (Paul et al., 2010; Johnston et al.,2004; Friedmann et al.,2008); many
researchers have also suggested that better availability of smoking cessation products will result
into less smoking (Friedmann et al., 2008; McClure et al., 2014). Some of the researcher have
described the strong correlation between proximity of retailed product and consumers (Paul et
al., 2010; Shriver & Bollinger, 2015). Planned Behavior Theories have also suggested that that
ease of availability would result into increased consumption behavior through higher perceived
acceptability (i.e. social norms) and increasing perceived control of behavior for purchasing
behavior (Ajzen, 1985). Two research studies in United States have also explained an association
among prevalence of smoking and access to tobacco products (Chaloupka & Pacula, 1999;
Pokorny, Jason, & Schoeny, 2003). The effect of reduced availability came out to be lower than
that of increased price (Chaloupka & Pacula, 1999), whereas, availability seems to be worth
exploring in the existence of a multi-faceted tobacco control policy. This can be substantiated by
other products like alcohol and fast food, which substantiate the instrument that higher retail

availability is associated with higher sales (Ashe et al., 2003; Burton et al., 2005; Godfrey, 1989;
Jekanowski et al., 2001). Smoking cessation product Usage, distance of an individual’s house to
one of the retailer’s outlets, smoking status and other demographic parameters i.e. age, sex,
marital status, number of children and employment are all useful parameters to predict the
smoking and quitting behavior. Here Criterion-Related Validity method has been used, in this
method measures of the operationalization against some theoretical criterion is evaluated,
theoretical evidence can be gathered from many studies. Evaluation of validity requires
examining the prediction about how the operationalization would perform based on the theory of
the construct of the measure. According to many research studies “the distance of an individual’s
house to one of the retailer’s outlets” was considered to be a potentially more reliable measure,
hence the proposed instrument is theoretically a valid instrument to establish causality.
Validity in research denotes to how accurately a study solves the problems of the study or
the strength of the study results. For outcome procedures like surveys or tests, validity implies to
the accuracy of the measurement. By assessing the extent to which a measuring instrument
precisely measures the theoretical construct can be a measurement of the strength of the
instrument or in another word, by calculating the coefficients of correlations between questions
and outcome variables the strength of the instrument can be calculated.
B. Assuming the instrument were valid, carefully describe the population for
which it would estimate the average effect of quitting smoking.
The population where retail outlet