Design and validation of a questionnaire on habits, health and exercise in the use of baby carriers

Introduction

Understanding the characteristics and implications of the use of baby carriers can help health care providers understand the habits of their patients and provide guidance to improve quality of life in both children and caregivers. The aim of our study was to design and validate the first self-administered questionnaire to assess babywearing habits and their impact on health and physical activity as a means to monitor musculoskeletal complaints in caregivers.

Material and methods

350 individuals who currently used or had used baby carrying systems in the last 10 years completed the questionnaire, which was previously subject to a pilot study in a panel of experts. We used exploratory factor analysis to assess the validity of the internal structure of the questionnaire. The Cronbach α coefficient was used to assess reliability. We used varimax rotation to improve the interpretation of the extracted factors.

Results

The factor analysis showed that the questionnaire is appropriate for measuring the dimensions or carriage factors established a priori. It extracted 3 factors each for the constructs of duration and weight of carriage, motivation, exercise habits and effects on infant health and 2 factors for caregiver pain that explained between 55% and 72% of the variance in each construct. The Cronbach α values were greater than 0.5.

Conclusions

The results support the validity of the questionnaire and demonstrate that it is useful for its intended purpose.