Brazilian version of food cravings questionnaires: Psychometric properties and sex differences

The Food Cravings Questionnaires, State (FCQ-State) and Trait (FCQ-Trait), are commonly used to assess food-craving behavior. This study aimed to develop and validate the Brazilian version of these questionnaires, and to explore potential gender differences in the trait version scores. Data were collected from (n = 611) undergraduate students. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the questionnaires structure, and construct validity was assessed. The FCQ-State-Br and FCQ-Trait-Br presented good psychometric properties, adequate model fit, and internal consistency, in general and by gender. A conservation of original structure of the Food Cravings Questionnaires was verified in the Brazilian versions. A good performance in the evaluations concerning the discriminant and convergent validity seem to corroborate these structures. Overweight individuals showed an increase in food-craving behavior. In females, this increase occurred in the guilt dimension, whereas in males, the increase was in the lack of control dimension. In addition, female dieters presented higher scores on the guilt dimension compared with female non-dieters. FCQ-State-Br and FCQ-Trait-Br constitute valid instruments for measuring food-craving behavior in the Brazilian population. Moreover, these findings suggest that food cravings may be an important aspect to be considered in clinical management of overweight individuals, and may require a sex-specific approach.