Development of Burden Scale for Dietary Behavior Appropriate for College Athletes

Background: This study aimed to develop the decisional balance scale for dietary behavior appropriate for college athletes and to examine the scale for reliability and validity. Methods: The cross-sectional study was performed using a self-report questionnaire for college athletes who belong to the sports club of a university located in Ibaraki, Japan, from October to December 2014. The final sample comprised 982 college athletes (704 males and 278 females) aged 18 to 22 years. Following item selection by exploratory factor analysis, the scale’s reliability and validity were examined by internal consistency, confirmatory factor analysis, and association of stage of change with the scale score. Furthermore, a retest for 378 athletes was conducted after about a 3-week interval. Results: Nine items (4 troublesome items, 3 repressed items, 2 compulsory items) classified for three types of burden factors were obtained through factor analysis. There were significant differences according to the stage of change in the troublesome and repressed factors (P < 0.05), consistent with the transtheoretical model. As a result of confirmatory factor analysis with two factors, excluding the compulsory factor, we obtained higher goodness of fit (GFI = 0.99, AGFI = 0.97, CFI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.06). The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and the intra-class correlation in each factor were as follows: troublesome = 0.73/0.66, repressed = 0.69/0.61. In addition, we observed moderate consistency for the retesting stage of change (kappa coefficient = 0.50). Conclusions: The present study suggested sufficient reliability and validity, which were confirmed in the burden scale for dietary behavior appropriate for college athletes.