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Updated-Food Choice Questionnaire: cultural adaptation and validation in a spanish-speaking population from Mexico
This study developed and validated an Updated Food Choice Questionnaire (U-FCQ) in a Spanish-speaking Mexican adult sample (n = 788), extending the original 36-item Food Choice Questionnaire (Steptoe, Pollard, & Wardle, 1995) through face validation, literature-based item generation, content validation with nutrition professionals, and construct validation using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The final U-FCQ contains 75 items across eight dimensions — sensory appeal, mood, health and natural content, convenience, price, food identity, environmental and wildlife awareness, and image management — and explains 54.6% of the variance in food-choice motives. The instrument demonstrated excellent overall internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.97; dimension-level α = 0.74–0.96) and moderate-to-good test–retest reliability (ICC = 0.51–0.78), with factor loadings ranging from 0.34 to 0.82. In the study sample, sensory appeal, mood, health and natural content, and convenience emerged as the most important food-choice motives, while image management, environmental and wildlife awareness, and food identity were the least important, and women assigned significantly greater importance than men to most dimensions. The authors position the U-FCQ as a screening and intervention-planning tool that captures both traditional and emerging food-choice motives — including nutritional labeling, ease of digestion, satiety, salt content, non-caloric sweeteners, and environmental and animal-welfare concerns — and provides a foundation for cross-cultural comparisons in Latin American populations. [NPID: Food Choice Questionnaire, U-FCQ, validation, cultural adaptation, food choice motives, Mexico, psychometric, assessment, screening tool, sensory appeal]
Year: 2024
