The Reliability and Validity of the Turkish Version of Food Cravings Questionnaire (FCQ-T) in Major Depressive Disorder Patien

Abstract

Objective: This study was planned to the reliability and validity of the FCQ-T for use in Turkish patients diagnosed with major depression.

Methods: The study was conducted on 203 (144 women, 59 men) patients, aged 20-64 years, who were diagnosed with major depression at three psychiatry centers. Firstly, this study sought to assess the applicability of the FCQ-T in Turkish. In addition, all socio-demographic questions regarding their age, gender, current health status, depression duration, drug use, dieting behaviors were questioned and the anthropometric measurements were made. Confirmatory Factor Analyses were performed with AMOS version 21 and all statistical analyses were performed using SPSS for Windows, Version 17.0.

Results: In this study, it was determined that the 39-item FCQ-T scale was collected under 9 factors as originally stated. According to Chi-square Goodness of Fit Index (chi(2)=4.27), Adjusted Goodness Of Fit Index (AGFI=0.96), Root Mean Residual (RMR=0.045) and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA=0.068) shown that the FCQ-T has an excellent fit. The level of internal consistency between the items of the FCQ-T was examined by item total correlation was over 0.40 and Cronbach Alpha Internal consistency coefficients was 0.97. Test-retest reliability was found to be 0.98. This value indicates that the FCQ-T is perfectly reliable. Lastly in this study, a positive correlation was found between FCQ-T scores and all foods types (especially sweet and fatty foods), weight, BMI, waist/hip circumference and fat mass (kg).

Conclusions: Based on the results of all analyses, Turkish version of the FCQ-T can be used to define eating behaviors and to measure changes in eating behavior for especially depressive individuals.