DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF A QUESTIONNAIRE ON ADOLESCENTS' HOME FOOD ENVIRONMENT.

Abstract

Objective.: To describe the design and psychometric assessment of the Adolescent Home Food Environment Questionnaire (Acronym in Portuguese: QAAD).

Design.: This was a cross-sectional study. Data were collected between August 2021 and January 2022 through self-administered questionnaires via a survey management application accessible by computer or smartphone. The instrument was subjected to analysis by a panel of experts and to a pretest that enabled the adjustment of the language and the reformulation of the questions. The psychometric evaluation included the assessment of test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient), internal consistency (composite reliability), structural validity (Exploratory Structural Equation Modelling and Confirmatory Factor Analysis), and construct validity (Mann‒Whitney test; p<0.05). The following food environment aspects were evaluated: family eating practices, food availability and accessibility, cooking equipment availability, and parental feeding style. Moreover, the weekly frequency of fruit, bean, and added sugar beverage consumption was assessed.

Setting.: A public high school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Participants.: 14-to-19-year-old students (n=34 in the test‒retest reliability study; n=501 in the validation analysis).

Results.: The final version of the QAAD included 32 questions allowing the assessment of seven dimensions of the home food environment. The QAAD demonstrated satisfactory reliability (ICC ranging from 0.44-0.78), adequate internal consistency (composite reliability >0.70), and satisfactory structural and construct validity.

Conclusions.: The careful QAAD design provided a valid, reliable, and consistent instrument for characterizing adolescents' home food environments, which may provide information for tailoring and targeting healthy eating promotion actions aimed at adolescents.