Is the human population a large-scale indicator of the species richness of ground beetles?

Aim Positive regional correlations between biodiversity and human population have been detected for several taxonomic groups and geographical regions. Such correlations could have important conservation implications and have been mainly attributed to ecological factors, with little testing for an artefactual explanation: more populated regions may show higher biodiversity because they are more thoroughly surveyed. We tested the hypothesis that the correlation between people and herptile diversity in Europe is influenced by survey effort

VALIDATION STUDY OF HEALTH BELIEFS SCALE

Introduction: The Health Belief Scale is a questionnaire used to assess a wide range of beliefs related to health. The objective of this study was to undertake construction and culturally adapt the Health Belief Scale (HBS) to the Portuguese language and to test its reliability and validity. Methods: This new version was obtained with forward/backward translations, consensus panels and a pre-test, having been inspired by some of the items from “Canada’s Health Promotion Survey” and the “European Health and Behaviour Survey”, with the inclusion of new items about food-related beliefs. The Portuguese version of Health Belief Scale and a form for the characteristics of the participants were applied to 849 Portuguese adolescents. Results: Reliability was good with a Cronbach’s alpha coeficient of 0.867, and an intraclass correlation coeficient (ICC) of 0.95. Corrected item-total coeficients ranged from 0.301 to 0.620 and weighted kappa coeficients ranged from 0.72 to 0.93 for the total scale items. We obtained a scale composed of 13 items divided into ive factors (smoking and alcohol belief, food belief, sexual belief, physical and sporting belief, and social belief), which explain 57.97% of the total variance. Conclusions: The scale exhibited suitable psychometric properties, in terms of internal consistency, reproducibility and construct validity. It can be used in various areas of research.