AUTHOR=de Carvalho Millena Vaz , Cardoso Antonio Gibran de Almeida , Feuerstein Shirley Cunha , Sousa Rosana Rodrigues de , Collese Tatiana Sadalla , Torres-Leal Francisco Leonardo , Nascimento-Ferreira Marcus Vinicius , De Moraes Augusto Cesar Ferreira 

TITLE=Reliability and validity of the dutch eating behavior questionnaire in an online format for university students from low-income regions in a pandemic context: A 24 hour MESYN study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Epidemiology

VOLUME=2

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/epidemiology/articles/10.3389/fepid.2022.1036631

DOI=10.3389/fepid.2022.1036631

ISSN=2674-1199

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Objective</title><p>To test the reliability and validity of the <italic>Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire</italic> (DEBQ) in an online format in university students from low-income regions.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>We applied the questionnaire to a sample of 195 and 117 university students from a low-income region (Gini index of 0.56) to study validity and reliability, respectively. The DEBQ consists of 33 items on eating behavior in three dimensions/factors: emotional eating, restrained eating and external eating. The questionnaire was administered twice at 2-week intervals. We tested the reliability <italic>via</italic> temporal stability and internal consistency and construct validity <italic>via</italic> exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>For reliability, we identified an acceptable Spearman correlation coefficient (rho &gt; 0.30 and <italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05) and Cronbach's alpha (<italic>α</italic> ≥ 0.70) for all DEBQ items. In the exploratory analysis, we identified 6 factors representing a mix of original and additional factors, with an explained variance of 69.1%. In the confirmatory analysis with structural equation modeling, we observed better global model adjustment for the 6-factor model with the Tucker–Lewis index and comparative fit index closer to one, as well as root mean square error of approximation closer to zero than the original (3-factor) model. Using generalized structural equation modeling, we also observed a better fit in latent class modeling for the 6-factor model (AIC: 16990.67; BIC. 17874.38) than for the 3-factor model (AIC: 17904.09; BIC: 18342.67).</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The online format of the DEBQ has acceptable reliability and validity for measuring eating behavior in university students from low-income regions.</p></sec>