TY - JOUR
T1 - Validation of a brief screening measure of environmental chemical sensitivity
T2 - The chemical odor intolerance index
AU - Szarek, Michael J.
AU - Bell, Iris R.
AU - Schwartz, Gary E.
PY - 1997/12
Y1 - 1997/12
N2 - The development and validation of a brief self-report screening measure of environmental chemical sensitivity, the Chemical Odor Intolerance Index (CII), is described. Subjects included 1734 college students, 192 older adults, and 38 chemically intolerant and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) patients. The results of the studies demonstrate that the CII has strong internal stability (Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0·80 to 0·92 across samples), and evidence of factorial, group, convergent, and discriminant validity is reported across diverse samples. In future research, the CII will permit the quantification of self-reported illness from low levels of environmental chemicals as a continuous rather than dichotomous variable. Consequently, the CII will facilitate the ability to compare and standardize subject selection criteria in both preclinical and clinical (i.e. MCS) populations.
AB - The development and validation of a brief self-report screening measure of environmental chemical sensitivity, the Chemical Odor Intolerance Index (CII), is described. Subjects included 1734 college students, 192 older adults, and 38 chemically intolerant and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) patients. The results of the studies demonstrate that the CII has strong internal stability (Cronbach's alpha ranging from 0·80 to 0·92 across samples), and evidence of factorial, group, convergent, and discriminant validity is reported across diverse samples. In future research, the CII will permit the quantification of self-reported illness from low levels of environmental chemicals as a continuous rather than dichotomous variable. Consequently, the CII will facilitate the ability to compare and standardize subject selection criteria in both preclinical and clinical (i.e. MCS) populations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0031539458&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0031539458&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1006/jevp.1997.0071
DO - 10.1006/jevp.1997.0071
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0031539458
SN - 0272-4944
VL - 17
SP - 345
EP - 351
JO - Journal of Environmental Psychology
JF - Journal of Environmental Psychology
IS - 4
ER -