Validation of a questionnaire to investigate lifestyles in general population

Abstract

Introduction: Medical practice lacks effective instruments to evaluate and characterize life styles.

Objective: To validate a questionnaire for evaluating lifestyles in the general population.

Methods: After defining the lifestyle construct and its dimensions, a search was conducted for questionnaires on this topic. Four were selected and analyzed by specialists; the proposal was modeled and piloted with 30 subjects. The criterion of experts and the validity of content by Moriyama methodology were used to validate the face validity. An incidental sample of 300 people was used, consisting of 149 apparently healthy individuals and 151 with chronic diseases from the four health areas of Sancti Spiritus. Internal consistency was determined by using Kuder-Richardson formulas 20, equivalent to Cronbach’s alpha. Exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses were performed to validate the structure of the proposal.

Results: The questionnaire has nine dimensions and was complemented with a semi- structured interview. The content validity established that the formulation of the items is reasonable, they are clearly defined, their inclusion is justified and constitute data feasible to obtain. The overall internal consistency index was α=0,705, while the corresponding dimensions showed low-moderate reliability. Exploratory factorial analysis showed partial discrepancies with respect to the theoretical model, and the confirmatory revealed suboptimal fit indices.

Conclusions: The questionnaire can be useful as a practical tool. Further studies are suggested to adjust its dimensional structure in future versions.