Introduction: When designing a comprehensive and personalized treatment for weight control, the information provided by obese patients on their dietary habits must be gathered correctly. Our objective was to develop and validate a new questionnaire on dietary habits for overweight and obese patients that could be used clinically.
Material and methods: The new questionnaire was developed and validated through a three-step process. Firstly, an existing questionnaire was reviewed. Secondly, a new questionnaire was developed, which included new items. Thirdly, scales to aid interpretation of the results in clinical practice were developed. Construct validity was assessed using factor analysis. The internal consistency reliability was analyzed.
Results: The validity and reliability of the new questionnaire was confirmed. The values of the patients' responses to the new questionnaire were related to variables such as age, sex, body mass index, and whether or not the patients were under treatment for hypertension, diabetes mellitus or dyslipidemia.
Conclusion: The validity and reliability of this questionnaire and the scales that aid their interpretation make it a useful tool for initial assessment and monitoring of changes in eating habits in response to treatment both individually and collectively in the Spanish population.
Copyright 2009 SEEN. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.