title: Validity and reliability of the semi-quantitative self-report Home Food Availability Inventory Checklist (HFAI-C) in White and South Asian populations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite interest in the importance of the home food environment and its potential influence on children's diets and social norms, there remain few self-report checklist methods that have been validated against the gold standard of researcher-conducted inventories. This study aimed to assess the criterion validity and reliability of the 'Home Food Availability Inventory Checklist' (HFAI-C), a 39-item checklist including categories of fruit, vegetables, snacks and drinks.
  
  
  METHODS
  The HFAI-C was completed by 97 participants of White and Pakistani origin in the UK. Validity was determined by comparing participant-reported HFAI-C responses to data from researcher observations of home food availability using PABAK and weighted kappa statistics. The validity of measuring the amount of items (in addition to presence/absence) available was also determined. Test-retest reliability compared repeated administrations of the HFAI-C using intra-class correlation coefficients.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Validity and reliability was fair to moderate overall. For validity, the average category-level PABAK ranged from 0.31 (95% CI: 0.25, 0.37) for vegetables to 0.44 (95% CI: 0.40, 0.49) for fruits. Assessment of the presence/absence of items demonstrated higher validity compared to quantity measurements. Reliability was increased when the HFAI-C was repeated close to the time of the first administration. For example, ICCs for reliability of the measurement of fruits were 0.52 (95%CI: 0.47, 0.56) if re-administered within 5 months, 0.58 (95% CI: 0.51, 0.64) within 30 days and 0.97 (95%CI: 0.94, 1.00) if re-administered on the same day.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, the HFAI-C demonstrated fair to moderate validity and reliability in a population of White and South Asian participants. This evaluation is consistent with previous work on other checklists in less diverse, more affluent populations. Our research supports the use of the HFAI-C as a useful, albeit imperfect, representation of researcher-conducted inventories. The feasibility of collecting information using the HFAI-C in large, multi-ethnic samples can facilitate examination of home food availability in relation to exposures such as ethnicity and outcomes including behavioural, social and health outcomes. Future work using the HFAI-C could provide important insights into a modifiable influence with potential to impact health.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Trials Research Unit, Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. M.j.bryant@leeds.ac.uk.|Bradford Institute of Health Research, Bradford Royal Infirmary, Bradford, BD9 6RJ, UK. M.j.bryant@leeds.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bryant
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599, USA.
authors.forename: Madison
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: LeCroy
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Well-being, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, LS1 3HE, UK.
authors.forename: Pinki
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sahota
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599, USA.
authors.forename: Jianwen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599, USA.|Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 27599, USA.
authors.forename: June
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stevens
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D044466:Asian People; D057189:Checklist / Q000592:standards*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004032:Diet / Q000208:ethnology*; D004777:Environment; D005190:Family; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005638:Fruit; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010154:Pakistan / Q000208:ethnology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D062410:Snacks; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D006113:United Kingdom; D014675:Vegetables; D044465:White People
keywords: Availability; Food; Home; Inventory; Measure; Reliability; South Asian; Validation