Developing and Testing an Instrument to Measure the Factors Affecting theSalt Restriction Behaviors among Women

Background: high salt intake is considered as one of the most important causes of hypertensionand cardiovascular diseases. measuring and identifying factors contributing to people's salt intakebehaviors is important to evaluate effectiveness of interventions focusing on salt reductionbehaviors. the purpose of this study was to develop and test a new theory of planned behavior(tpb)- based instrument to measure factors influencing three different salt intake behaviors (addingsalt during cooking, at the table, purchasing salty food) among women.study design: a mixed-method study.methods: after the face and content validity of developed instrument were established, arepresentative sample of women (n= 300, age (sd):42.82(12.10)) were recruited to assess theconstruct validity using partial least square confirmatory factor analysis. coefficient alpha andcomposite reliability (cr) were used to establish reliability of instrument. the content validity index(cvi) and content validity ratio (cvr) were used to assess the content validity.results: assessing validity and reliability of instrument led to 56-item questionnaire. cvi was morethan 0.70 and cvr more than 0.56. internal consistency as assessed by cronbach's alpha wasacceptable. convergent and discriminant validity were established. the gof index for behaviorone was 0.250, for behavior two was 0.414 and behavior three was 0.374. the results ofconfirmatory factor analysis indicate that tpb model has an acceptable fit with data.conclusion: our instrument provides a validated and reliable tool for assessing different aspectsof salt intake behaviors in women to evaluate effectiveness of interventions focusing on saltreduction behaviors.