CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION AND EVIDENCE OF THE VALIDITY OF THE MEASURE OF FAT BIAS SCALE FOR USE IN BRAZIL

The Measure of Fat Bias is a scale developed to assess fat bias. The purpose of the study was to realize the cross-cultural adaptation of this scale and identify its psychometric properties for the Brazilian population in an exploratory level. METHODS: All cross-cultural adaptation procedures followed the recommendations by Borsa et al. (2012). The final version of the cross-culturally adapted scale was administered to a sample of 394 adult subjects from the general population of residents in Brazil, most of whom were female (91.11%; N = 359) and the average age of the sample was 43.22 years (SD = 13.87). To identify the psychometric properties, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed in the FACTOR software. The EFA was implemented using the Robust Diagonally Weighted Least Squares (RDWLS) estimation technique. The decision on the number of factors to be retained was taken using the Optimal Implementation of Parallel Analysis technique. The rotation used was Robust Promin in all analyzes with more than one factor. To analyze the internal consistency of each dimension, the Composite Reliability coefficient was used. RESULTS: After the cross-cultural adaptation, the committee of judges considered that the Portuguese version of the scale presented semantic, idiomatic, cultural and conceptual equivalence. The EFA presented a structure of 3 dimensions, unlike the original version, which presented 4. However, these dimensions were grouped in a semantically and theoretically coherent way, explaining 12.42% of the total variance. Internal consistency values were strong: Composite Reliability showed a coefficient of 0.8 for Factor 1 - Adverse Judgment; coefficient of 0.8 for Factor 2 - Attraction and Proximity and coefficient of 0.9 for Factor 3 - Equal Rights, while Cronbach's α showed a coefficient of 0.90. The adjustment indices for the exploratory analysis of the instrument were compatible s (χ2 = 1067.672, gl = 133; p < 0.001; CFI = 0.927; TLI = 0.896). A of RMSEA = 0.134, which was considered poor (above 0.100). CONCLUSIONS: The cross-cultural adaptation and the exploratory psychometric qualities of the Measure of Fat Bias scale were satisfactory.