Abstract
ABSTRACTObjective: To cross-culturally adapt and validate the Montreal Children’s Hospital Feeding Scale (MCH-FS) into Brazilian Portuguese.Methods: The MCH-FS, originally validated in Canada, was validated in Brazil as Escala Brasileira de Alimentação Infantil (EBAI) and developed according to the following steps: translation, production of the Brazilian Portuguese version, testing of the original and the Brazilian Portuguese versions, back-translation, analysis by experts and by the developer of the original questionnaire, and application of the final version. The EBAI was applied to 242 parents/caregivers responsible for feeding children from 6 months to 6 years and 11 months of age between February and May 2018, with 174 subjects in the control group and 68 ones in the case group. The psychometric properties evaluated were validity and reliability.Results: In the case group, 79% of children were reported to have feeding difficulties, against 13% in the control group. The EBAI had good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha=0.79). Using the suggested cutoff point of 45, the raw score discriminated between cases and controls with a sensitivity of 79.4% and specificity of 86.8% (area under the ROC curve=0.87).Conclusions: The results obtained in the validation process of the EBAI demonstrate that the questionnaire has adequate psychometric properties and, thus, can be used to identify feeding difficulties in Brazilian children from 6 months to 6 years and 11 months of age.
Highlights
Eating difficulties can occur in 20–35% of the pediatric population, with neurotypical development
The results of this study demonstrated that the Escala Brasileira de Alimentação Infantil (EBAI) may be applicable in Brazil
The translation and cross-cultural adaptation processes that resulted in the development of the EBAI made it possible to adapt the original scale and make it useful for use in Brazilian culture
Summary
Eating difficulties can occur in 20–35% of the pediatric population, with neurotypical development. Due to the high prevalence[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12] and the negative consequences of feeding difficulties, health professionals should have access to a valid and reliable screening instrument, of clinical applicability, able to quickly identify the complaints of parents or legal guardians on their children’s feeding difficulties. Referral to specialists can be carried out as soon as the problem is identified.[12,13] to date, few self-completed instruments, applicable to parents/caregivers, with standardized psychometric measures, have been validated to reliably identify their perceptions of children’s feeding difficulties.[3,10,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]
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