Validación y propuesta normativa para la valoración de la preocupación por la alimentación de adolescentes chilenos : Estudio EPACH

Abstract

Objective: To validate a questionnaire to measure the concern on feeding habits in adolescents, verifying the reliability and develop normative values based on age, sex and category. Methodology: We studied 3,121 (1,645 men and 1,476 women) adolescents from 11.0 to 18.9 years from five municipal establishments in the region of Maule, Chile. Weight, height were assessed and body mass index was calculated. A questionnaire measuring concern for school feeding was applied to adolescents. It was validated by confirmatory analysis and reliability was determined by internal consistency. Results: Factor analysis confirmed the presence of four factors (Concern about the restriction of food, concern about food consumption, concern about the way you eat and concern about body weight). Five questions with saturation under 0.39 were eliminated. The instrument was formed with 24 questions that explain 51.8% of variance. Cronbach’s alpha showed values between 0.85 to 0.88. Percentiles (p15, p50 and p85) from the LMS method for assessing the concern for food by category, age and sex were built. Conclusion: The developed instrument is valid and reliable and used to assess the level of concern about the supply of school adolescents, the proposed rules would also serve education professionals to carry on prevention work with youth that demonstrate low levels of concern for food.