title: Food cravings among Brazilian population.
abstract: This study aimed to develop and validate a Brazilian version of the Food Craving Inventory (FCI-Br), adapted to the cultural-gastronomic context of Brazil, and to explore this behavior among adult Brazilians. The Study 1 population consisted of 453 adults from all regions of Brazil. Participants responded to a preliminary form of the instrument online. Exploratory factor analysis revealed an FCI-Br presenting 23 items and three factors: High Fat, Sweet Food and Traditional Meal. The FCI-Br overall reliability was considered adequate (α = 0.82), as were each of the sub-scales. The food items receiving higher average scores from the application of the instrument were chocolate (3.14 ± 1.28; women) and bread (2.94 ± 1.44, men). A significant association was observed between the specific-craving for Sweet Food and female respondents. Most participants reported experiencing more frequent episodes of food craving when alone (68.0%; n = 391) and during the afternoon (32.2%; n = 127) or evening (43.8%; n = 173) hours. Application of the FCI-Br in a population of 649 university students (Study 2) demonstrated a good adjustment of the model developed according to the Confirmatory factor analysis (χ2/gl = 2.82, CFI = 0.94; TLI = 0.93; RMSEA = 0.06). The current findings indicate that the FCI-Br has adequate psychometric properties to measure craving behavior with respect to specific food groups in the resident population of Brazil. The results of this study also shed light on the importance of considering the cultural diversity of a population when investigating eating behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Evolution of the Human Behavior, Graduate Program in Psychobiology, Department of Physiology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil; Health Sciences College of Trairi, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Santa Cruz, Brazil. Electronic address: annacqm@yahoo.com.br.
authors.forename: Anna Cecília
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Queiroz de Medeiros
authors.affiliation: Department of Nutrition, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil. Electronic address: lfcpedrosa@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lucia de Fatima Campos
authors.initials: LFC
authors.lastname: Pedrosa
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Evolution of the Human Behavior, Graduate Program in Psychobiology, Department of Physiology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Brazil. Electronic address: emiliayamamoto@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria Emilia
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D001939:Bread; D002182:Candy; D000069956:Chocolate; D066249:Craving; D004034:Diet Surveys; D000073417:Dietary Sugars; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000073417:Dietary Sugars
keywords: Brazilian; Eating behavior; Food cravings; Validation