Development and Validation of a Questionnaire on Eating Behaviour for School Children and its Correlation with Nutritional Status

Abstract

Background: Eating behaviours in childhood are linked to malnutrition and have found to influence the
eating behaviour into adolescence and adulthood.
Aim: (i) To develop and validate a questionnaire on the eating behaviour patterns of school children and
correlate it with their nutritional status (ii) To test the utility of the questionnaire using the Intra-class
coefficient, factor and construct validity.
Objective: (i) To develop a self-administered questionnaire on the prevailing eating behaviour patterns
among school going children and validate the content using a multidisciplinary team ii) To compare the
eating behaviour of school children and the nutritional status of children using anthropometric measures
(iii) To test the developed Eating Behaviour Questionnaire for School Children for its factor and construct
validity.
Method: A questionnaire was developed and validated based on eating behaviour patterns and habits that
were prevalent supported by scientific evidence. The validated questionnaire was administered among 462
school going children of age 10 -12 years. Factor analysis, construct validity for the same was performed
and correlated with the anthropometric measures.
Results: The correlation of BMI verses WHtR was 0.305 and the correlation value between the subsets was
>0.2 indicating weak uphill (positive) linear relationship.
Conclusion: The Eating Behaviour Questionnaire was found to have an acceptable reliability but the
intraclass correlation coefficient was found to be unacceptable and the scores of the questionnaire were
found to be independent of BMI and WHtR.