Background:
Assessing public health interventions is crucial for the development of public policies. Currently, there is no instrument to assess the treatment for smoking cessation at the Brazilian public health system.
Aim:
This study reports the development of a questionnaire for that purpose and assesses its suitability.
Methods:
Cross-sectional study involving health professionals. A multidimensional self-administered questionnaire was constructed. Assessing its suitability counted on the participation of experts of the Brazilian National Cancer Institute and pretesting with 18 health professionals working in eight different multidisciplinary teams that treat smokers. Descriptive statistics were computed to measure the characteristics of the population studied.
Results:
The instrument was well accepted, and considered clear and covering all parameters necessary to assess the treatment for smoking cessation by 100% of the respondents. The mean time spent to complete the questionnaire varied between 15 and 30 minutes. After performing the pretest, the instrument was reformulated. Its final version was a self-administered, multidimensional questionnaire comprising 30 questions.
Conclusions:
Pretesting provided a substantial enhancement of the questionnaire, minimizing difficulties in understanding the questions and perfecting the response options. Thus, an efficient, understandable and easy-to-use questionnaire with suitable content and well accepted by health professionals could be developed. It will contribute in the process of assessing the treatment for smoking cessation at health care facilities of the Brazilian Public Health System.