Translation and cultural adaptation of the questionnaire on the reason for food choices (Food Choice Questionnaire - FCQ) into Portuguese

• Published in: Ciência & saude coletiva Vol. 20; no. 8; pp. 2339 - 2346
• Main Authors: Heitor, Sara Franco Diniz, Estima, Camilla Chermont Prochnik, das Neves, Fabricia Junqueira, de Aguiar, Aline Silva, Castro, Sybelle de Souza, Ferreira, Julia Elba de Souza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Brazil 01-08-2015
• Subjects: Adolescent; Brazil; Cultural Characteristics; Female; Food Preferences; Humans; Language; Male; Surveys and Questionnaires; Translations; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1678-4561
• DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232015208.15842014

The Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) assesses the importance that subjects attribute to nine factors related to food choices: health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity and ethical concern. This study sought to assess the applicability of the FCQ in Brazil; it describes the translation and cultural adaptation from English into Portuguese of the FCQ via the following steps: independent translations, consensus, back-translation, evaluation by a committee of experts, semantic validation and pre-test. The pre-test was run with a randomly sampled group of 86 male and female college students from different courses with a median age of 19. Slight differences between the versions were observed and adjustments were made. After minor changes in the translation process, the committee of experts considered that the Brazilian Portuguese version was semantically and conceptually equivalent to the English original. Semantic validation showed that the questionnaire is easily understood. The instrument presented a high degree of internal consistency. The study is the first stage in the process of validating an instrument, which consists of face and content validity. Further stages, already underway, are needed before other researchers can use it.