Study on reliability and validity of the ENERGY questionnaire published

The ENERGY-project is a European Commission funded cross-European project to gain more insight

in Energy Balance Related Behaviors (EBRB, i.e. specific eating, physical activity and sedentary behaviors that contribute to risk for overweight and obesity) and their potential behavioural determinants, and to inform and test a school-based and family-involved obesity prevention intervention scheme. As part of the ENERGY-project a crosssectional survey among more than 7000 children, their parents, and schools was conducted in seven countries representing different regions of Europe. This survey used questionnaires among children, parents, and school staff, as well as observations in the school and school environments. However, for the survey no established valid and reliable measures that could be administered in large populations of schoolchildren in different countries across Europe were available. Therefore, we developed a child and parent questionnaire to assess a range of EBRBs and potential individual and environmental behavioural determinants, and examined the test-retest reliability and construct validity of these two main questionnaires used in the ENERGY cross-sectional survey. The reliability study among children is now published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, with Dr. Amika Singh as the first author.