Psychometric properties of the shortened Farsi version of the Food Cravings Questionnaire-Trait

Food craving contributes to the incidence of weight and food-related disorders. Thus, an accurate measurement of food craving is important for clinical and research purposes.

We aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the shortened Farsi version of the Food Craving Questionnaire- Trait (FCQ-T-r), an internationally validated tool.

For this cross-sectional study, data was collected from 153 students of the University of Tehran between February and March 2019 using the Farsi version of FCQ-T-r; Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21); and the Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF). Confirmatory factor analysis using SPSS AMOS (version 21) failed to support the one-factor structure of FCQ-T-r in Farsi, so we conducted an exploratory factor analysis to investigate the factor structure of the questionnaire.

Exploratory factor analysis reflected a 3-factor structure responsible 73.3% of the variance factor 1 "preoccupation with food", factor 2 "lack of control over eating" and factor 3 "emotional eating". Internal consistency of the FCQ-T-r was excellent (McDonald's ω = 0.950). The FCQ-T-r scores were correlated with body mass index, DASS-21, and WHOQOL-BREF values, which supports concurrent validity of the tool.

The Farsi version of FCQ-T-r is a reliable and valid self-administrated tool to measure food craving traits among Iranian university students. Given the unstable factor structure of the questionnaire in different studies, further research should be conducted explore the factor structure of the tool.