Reliability of a Smoking Cessation Risk Factor Interview Scale (SCRFIS) for use with standardized patient instructors.

Background: This study evaluated internal consistency and inter-rater reliability of the smoking cessation risk factor interview scale (SCRFIS).

Methods: Encounters from 16 patient instructors and 414 medical students were used for analyses: Cronbach's alpha and item-to-total correlations measured internal consistency; one-way analysis of variance evaluated comparability of scores across multiple raters, t-tests measured gender bias, and regression analyses compared student counseling skills across three curricula.

Results: The total scale was reliable, there was minimal gender bias, and student counseling skills remained relatively constant over time.