Validation of a brief screening measure of environmental chemical sensitivity: The chemical odor intolerance index

Michael J. Szarek, Iris R. Bell, Gary E. Schwartz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

59 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)345-351
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Environmental Psychology
Volume17
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1997

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Applied Psychology

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