Cervical Cancer Screening Beliefs Questionnaire: Development and Psychometric Assessment With Immigrants in Australia

Background: A body of literature consistently highlights that women from minority cultures have been an underserved group in cervical screening. Objective: We aimed to report the development and psychometric assessment of the Cervical Cancer Screening Beliefs Questionnaire (CCSBQ), a culturally sensitive questionnaire for measuring immigrant women’s beliefs, knowledge, and attitudes towards cervical cancer and its screening. Methods: A convenience sample of 871 women, recruited from various ethnic organizations for this study, was split into 2 sets for development and validation of the CCSBQ. Items for the questionnaire were drawn from a literature review and a preliminary study conducted by the team. A panel of professional experts and lay women evaluated face and content validity. Multi-trait analysis and Cronbach’s alpha were used to assess its factor structure, convergent-divergent validity, internal consistency and construct validity. Results: A17-item, 3-subscale version of the CCSBQ was formed. Psychometric examination confirmed its 3-factor structure. All items showed a correlation coefficient ≥0.39 with its subscale score. Cronbach’s alpha of the 3 subscales ranged from 0.71 to 0.88. Women, who had ever heard of cervical cancer and cervical screening, and screening participation, including ever attended, attended in the last 5 years as recommended and having intention to attend in the near future, had more proactive attitudes to health check-ups, better knowledge about cervical cancer and its screening, and perceived fewer barriers to cervical screening. Conclusion: The CCSBQ is culturally appropriate, valid and reliable for measuring immigrant women’s attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge about cervical cancer and its screening practice.