Turkish version of the ‘Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-51’ for obese individuals: a validity and reliability study

OBJECTIVES: Obesity is a serious public health issue. Investigating the eating behaviour of individuals plays an important role in preventing obesity. Therefore, the purpose of the current study is to adapt the long and first version of the ‘Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire’ (TFEQ), a scale that examines the eating behaviour of individuals, to Turkish culture and to carry out its validity and reliability study. DESIGN: The data were collected using data collection forms, and anthropometric measurements of the individuals were made by the researchers. The data collection form included several parameters: socio-demographic characteristics, the TFEQ scale, whose validity and reliability analysis is conducted here, and the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) which was used as a parallel form. SETTING: The Obesity Clinic at Ege University in Izmir. PARTICIPANTS: The study group consisted of obese adult individuals (n 257). RESULTS: It was seen that constructing the questionnaire with twenty-seven items and four sub-dimensions provides better information about Turkish obese individuals. Factor loadings ranged from 0·421 to 0·846, and item total score correlations ranged from 0·214 to 0·558. Cronbach’s α coefficient was found to be 0·639 for the whole scale. A positive, strong and statistically significant correlation was detected between TFEQ and DEBQ, which was used as a parallel form (r = 0·519, P < 0·001). CONCLUSION: In Turkey, the long version of the TFEQ scale was found valid and reliable for obese adult individuals. TFEQ can be used by clinicians or researchers to study the eating behaviour of obese individuals.