Validity of Pro Children Project questionnaire for assessing psychosocial factors of fruit and vegetable intake in Mexico

• Published in: Salud pública de México 2014-04, Vol.56 (2), p.165-179
• Main Authors: Ochoa-Meza, Gerardo, Sierra, Juan C, Pérez-Rodrigo, Carmen, Aranceta-Bartrina, Javier
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Subjects: Adolescent; Child; cuestionarios; Diet - psychology; Eating - psychology; estudios de validación; Female; Fruit; frutas; Humans; Male; Mexico; niño; Reproducibility of Results; Surveys and Questionnaires; Vegetables; verduras
• ISSN: 0036-3634; 1606-7916
• DOI: 10.21149/spm.v56i2.7332

To determine content and construct validity for the Mexican version of Pro Children Project questionnaire for assessing psychosocial factors, related to fruit and vegetable intake in samples of 10-12 year-old schoolchildren. The questionnaire consisted of 87 items. It was administered to 2084 children in an instrumental study conducted in 2011 in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Kappa statistic resulted in good agreement between experts (kappa=0.69), very good agreement in children (kappa=0.93). Seven factors were obtained that explained 37.87% of the variance in fruit and 48.18% of the variance in vegetable. Cronbach's alpha values were low to moderate (range 0.55 to 0.83). An internal structure of seven first order factors was confirmed in fruits and six linked to vegetables. The questionnaire provides sufficient validity for assessing psychosocial factors related to fruit and vegetable intake in 10-12 year old schoolchildren. Finally, implications of the findings in the test adaptation process for assessing psychosocial factors of fruit and vegetable intake and for future research in this instrument are discussed.