Usefulness of the Food Habits Questionnaire in a Worksite Setting

• Published in: Journal of nutrition education and behavior Vol. 34; no. 5; pp. 268 - 272
• Main Authors: Spoon, Mary P., Devereux, Paul G., Benedict, Jamie A., Leontos, Carolyn, Constantino, Nora, Christy, David, Snow, Gwenn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-09-2002; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adult; community-based research; Coronary Disease - diet therapy; Correlation; diet assessment; Dietary Fats; Energy Intake - physiology; Feeding Behavior - psychology; Female; Food; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Outcome Measures; Predictive Validity; Psychometrics; Questionnaires; Reproducibility of Results; Surveys and Questionnaires; Validity; Work environment; Workplace - psychology; worksite survey; diet assessment; worksite survey; community-based research
• ISSN: 1499-4046; 1878-2620; 1708-8259
• DOI: 10.1016/S1499-4046(06)60105-X

To examine the validity and reliability of the 24-item Food Habits Questionnaire (FHQ) in a worksite setting.
In a longitudinal design, subjects in a 9-month worksite intervention program completed the FHQ pre- and postintervention. A randomly selected subsample also completed 2 sets of 4-day food records.
Three locations within a multisite industrial equipment company.
Subjects (N = 178) self-selected to participate in the program and completed the FHQ. Mean age was 40.7 ± 10.6, 60% were male, and 82% were white, and there were 15 occupational categories. Thirty-two subjects completed 2 sets of 4-day food records.
To examine the validity and reliability of the FHQ total scale and subscales in a worksite setting with both men and women from varying socioeconomic levels.
Cronbach α coefficient to estimate internal consistency for the total scale and the subscales, Pearson correlation coefficients to estimate test-retest reliabilities and criterion validity.
For the 5 subscales, findings showed generally low internal consistency, moderate test-retest reliability, and low to moderate correlations with food record results. Psychometric properties for the total score of the FHQ included satisfactory internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and criterion validity.
The FHQ subscales did not perform well and need to be more fully developed. Therefore, the FHQ may best be used as a total scale score to indicate fat-related behaviors.