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

Abstract

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 alpha 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 (alpha=0.42) and vegetables (alpha=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.