1.Validation and dimensional analysis of the eating behaviour pattern questionnaire among Malaysian university students
Maryam Kheirollahpour ; Asma Ahmad Shariff ; Amir Feisal Merican ; Mahmoud Danaee
Malaysian Journal of Nutrition 2020;26(No.3):333-340
Introduction: Eating behaviour pattern is among the key behavioural factors that
contribute to eating disorders. Hence, to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of
the Eating Behaviour Pattern Questionnaire (EBPQ) that is used in epidemiological
studies to measure the relationship between health outcomes and eating behaviour
patterns, this study aimed to validate the adopted version of the EBPQ and to check
the validity and reliability of this tool in University of Malaya, Malaysia. Methods:
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to determine the most appropriate factor
structure of EBPQ. Moreover, structural equation modelling (SEM) and confirmatory
factor analysis (CFA) were applied to examine the convergent and discriminant
validity of EBPQ. As for the participants of the study, multi-stage random sampling
was used and 200 students (109 females and 91 males) from University of Malaya
were chosen. Results: The EFA yielded nine components of EBPQ including
emotional eating, eating outside, cultural habit, low-fat eating, meal skipping,
snacking, healthy eating, planning for food and sweets, which explained 67.7% of
the total variance. Furthermore, the Cronbach’s α was about 0.8 for all components,
which exhibited a high internal consistency among the obtained components. The
results showed that the questionnaire had sufficient convergent and discriminant
validity. Conclusion: The EBPQ was proven to be a reliable tool to measure the
eating behaviour patterns in Malaysian university students. The presence of
adequate validity and reliability supports this instrument’s psychometric properties
for future studies.