Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Pap Smear Belief Questionnaire in Iranian Women

Background: Beliefs of women play a very important role in efficacy of screening for cervical cancer. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate their points of view using appropriate tools with suitable validity and reliability. It seems that the Pap Smear Belief Questionnaire (PSBQ) can assess the attitudes and beliefs of women towards screening for Pap smear. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate cross-cultural adaptation of beliefs regarding cervical cancer screening in Iranian women. Method: In the present study, the cross-cultural adaptation was investigated in 318 married participants. Following the translation and re-translation processes of PSBQ, approval by author, and obtaining the views of the experts as well as participants, the face and content validities of questionnaire were determined qualitatively. Moreover, the construct validity was affirmed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The tool reliability was analyzed by internal consistency and test-retest methods. Results: The construct validity of the questionnaire had four subscales (exam-related factors, benefits, barriers, and vulnerability). Cronbach's alpha was obtained as 0.93 and the intracluster correlation coefficient was 0.98, indicating the reliability of the Persian version of this questionnaire. Implications for Practice: The Persian version of PSBQ had an acceptable validity and reliability among the Iranian female population. This reliable instrument can be used to assess the existing status, in addition to study the effectiveness of breast cancer screening beliefs.