Reliability and validity of the Persian version of Food Craving Questionnaire-Trait-Reduced (FCQ-T-r) in overweight and obese women

Abstract

Introduction: Food Craving Questionnaire (FCQ) is a popular tool in assessing food craving which consisted of a trait (FCQ-T) and state (FCQ-S). The aim of the current study was to provide reliability and validity of the Persian version of FCQ-Trait-reduced (FCQ-T-r 15-items) in overweight and obese women. Material and methods: The subjects were 168 overweight and obese women who were consented to participate. The subjects completed the FCQ-T-r and subsequently, anthropometric, body composition and psychometric assessments performed to assess the inter-correlations and concurrent validity. The confirmatory factor analysis was done to derive the potential factors and internal consistency of the questionnaire was assessed. Two weeks later, FCQ-T-r repeated for 126 subjects to assess test-retest reliability. Results: The confirmatory factor analysis of by varimax rotation, show that three principal components were loaded on expected factors. The Cronbachâ��s alpha coefficient was 0.90. (0.91, 0.78, and 0.71, for factors). The testâ��retest analysis shows an acceptable level of reliability ( P=0.001) and Pearson correlation coefficient  of 0.92 between the two administrations. In split-half reliability analysis the Cronbachâ��s alpha coefficient of the part 1 was 0.80 and for the part 2 was 0.86. The correlation coefficient between part 1 and part 2 was 0.81. Conclusion: This preliminary study provides evidences in favor of reliability and validity of the Persian version of the FCQ-T-r. In general, the results showed a high level of internal consistency for FCQ-T-r, and none of the 15 items had to be deleted to improve I±.