College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
PLoS One. 2023 Sep 1;18(9):e0291113. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291113. eCollection 2023.
Misconceptions about the health risks of cannabis remain prevalent, indicating the need to improve public health messaging and determine the effectiveness of educational programming. Our objective was to develop a standardized questionnaire to measure knowledge about cannabis in the context of cannabis legalization.
A Cannabis Knowledge Assessment Tool (CKAT) was created using the Delphi method. A purposive sample of healthcare professionals, policymakers, academics, patients, and students served as the content and development experts. Principal component analysis from the codes identified from open-ended feedback guided the item development. Upon completion, the CKAT was administered as a pre- and post-test in four schools (7th and 9th Grade) in Canada. The data were analysed to determine whether knowledge scores changed after participating in a cannabis education program.
Twenty-four experts initially participated in the Delphi process and 18 (75% retention) continued throughout. Principal component analysis identified 3 domains: 1) effects of cannabis on the individual, 2) general information about cannabis, and 3) cannabis harm reduction. The final questionnaire consisted of 16 multiple-true-false questions (64 items) and received a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 6.3, and a SMOG index score of 7.6. The CKAT was completed by 132 students; seventy-three 7th grade and fifty-nine 9th grade students. The baseline mean CKAT score was 46.2 (SD:5.5), which increased to 50.7 (SD:4.6) after the cannabis educational program (p<0.05).
A novel tool to measure knowledge of cannabis was developed and piloted in 7th grade and 9th grade students. Future studies are required to test usability and validity of the CKAT in other contexts.
人们对大麻健康风险的误解仍然普遍存在，这表明需要改进公共卫生信息传递，并确定教育计划的有效性。我们的目标是开发一种标准化的问卷来衡量大麻合法化背景下的大麻知识。
使用德尔菲法创建了大麻知识评估工具（CKAT）。医疗保健专业人员、政策制定者、学者、患者和学生的目的抽样作为内容和开发专家。来自开放式反馈的代码的主成分分析指导了项目的开发。完成后，CKAT 在加拿大的四所学校（7 年级和 9 年级）进行了预测试和后测试。分析数据以确定参加大麻教育计划后知识分数是否发生变化。
最初有 24 名专家参加了德尔菲过程，18 名（75%保留率）继续参加。主成分分析确定了 3 个领域：1）大麻对个人的影响，2）大麻的一般信息，3）大麻减少伤害。最终问卷由 16 个多项真假题组成（共 64 个项目），Flesch-Kincaid 年级水平为 6.3，SMOG 指数得分为 7.6。132 名学生完成了 CKAT，73 名 7 年级学生和 59 名 9 年级学生。基线平均 CKAT 得分为 46.2（SD：5.5），参加大麻教育计划后增加到 50.7（SD：4.6）（p<0.05）。
开发了一种测量大麻知识的新工具，并在 7 年级和 9 年级学生中进行了试点。需要进一步的研究来测试 CKAT 在其他环境中的可用性和有效性。
