Validity of a four-item questionnaire in French assessing attachment to meat

Background: The 16-item Meat Attachment Questionnaire (MAQ-16) assesses emotional and cognitive attachment to meat across four dimensions: hedonism, affinity, entitlement, and dependence. Recently validated in French, we aimed to develop and validate a shorter, four-item version (MAQ^f-4) to reduce participant burden.

Methods: In this 2023 observational study in the Rhône-Alpes region, 919 primary care patients were invited to complete the French MAQ-16 (MAQ^f-16). Classical test theory guided the development of the MAQ^f-4, and Spearman's correlation coefficients assessed its correlation with the MAQ^f-16 (dimension and overall scores). We also evaluated the diagnostic performance of the MAQ^f-4 for identifying patients with high meat attachment (MAQ^f-16 score > 60).

Results: A total of 822 patients participated (65.3% women; median age = 52; participation rate = 89.5%). The MAQ^f-4 showed strong correlations with the MAQ^f-16 (rho = 0.83 for hedonism, 0.77 for affinity, 0.70 for entitlement, 0.79 for dependence, and 0.86 for the overall score, all p-values <0.001). A score < 15 on the MAQ^f-4 (sensitivity = 91%, NPV = 96%) effectively excluded patients with low meat attachment, while a score ≥ 17 (specificity = 96%, PPV = 84%) accurately identified those with high attachment.

Conclusion: The MAQ^f-4 demonstrated strong correlation with the MAQ^f-16 and accurately identified high attachment to meat. It may serve as a useful tool in research and clinical settings, though further validation is required before broad implementation in French primary care.