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Reliability and validity of a questionnaire to measure personal, social and environmental correlates of fruit and vegetable intake in 10–11-year-old children in five European countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

I De Bourdeaudhuij ,
K-I Klepp ,
P Due ,
C Perez Rodrigo ,
MDV de Almeida ,
M Wind ,
R Krølner ,
C Sandvik  and
J Brug
I De Bourdeaudhuij*
Affiliation:
Department of Movement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
K-I Klepp
Affiliation:
Institute for Nutrition Research, University of Oslo, Norway
P Due
Affiliation:
Department of Social Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
C Perez Rodrigo
Affiliation:
Unidad de Nutricion Comunitaria, Bilbao, Spain
MDV de Almeida
Affiliation:
Faculdade de Ciências da Nutrição e Alimentação da Universidade do Porto, Portugal
M Wind
Affiliation:
Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Department of Public Health, The Netherlands
R Krølner
Affiliation:
Department of Social Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
C Sandvik
Affiliation:
Institute for Nutrition Research, University of Oslo, Norway
J Brug
Affiliation:
Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Department of Public Health, The Netherlands
*
*Corresponding author: Email Ilse.Debourdeaudhuij@UGent.be
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Abstract

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Objectives

To investigate the internal consistency of the scales and the test–retest reliability and predictive validity of behaviour theory-based constructs measuring personal, social and environmental correlates of fruit and vegetable intake in 10–11-year-old children.

Design

Test–retest with one-week interval.

Setting

Five European countries: Norway, Spain, Denmark, Portugal, Belgium.

Subjects

Three hundred and twenty-six children completed the questionnaire during class hours.

Results

For the total sample across all countries, the test–retest reliability was good to very good (intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) >0.60) for 12 out of the 15 fruit constructs and also for 12 out of the 15 vegetable constructs. Acceptable ICCs, ranging between 0.50 and 0.59, were found for the remaining constructs. Test–retest reliability was comparable across countries. Only in Portugal were some significantly lower ICCs found for some constructs (knowledge and barriers related to fruit, general self-efficacy related to fruit and vegetables) compared with the other countries. Cronbach's α values were moderate to high (range 0.52 to 0.89) with the exception of the general self-efficacy scale, which had a value below 0.50 for both fruit (α = 0.42) and vegetables (α = 0.49). Spearman correlations with intake ranged between -0.16 and 0.54 for personal determinants and between 0.05 and 0.38 for environmental determinants. Compared with other studies, predictive validity can be considered moderate to good.

Conclusions

The questionnaire provides a reliable, valid and easy-to-administer tool for assessing personal, social and environmental factors of potential influence on fruit and vegetable intake in 10–11-year-olds.

Keywords

FruitVegetablesChildrenReliabilityQuestionnaireSocio-environmental influencesEurope
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , April 2005 , pp. 189 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2005

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