translation and validation of the persian version of mindful eating questionnaire

Background: wrong eating behaviors increase the risk of numerous chronic diseases. objectives: this study aims to determine the validity and reliability of the mindful eating questionnaire (meq) in the iranian population. materials & methods: in a validation study at the university of guilan city, iran, in 2019-2020. first, the meq was translated based on the forward-backward method. after applying the changes to the persian version of meq (p-meq), 50 participants responded to the p-meq twice with an interval of 3 weeks. then, 384 iranian students selected by the two-stage cluster sampling method completed the p-meq to determine its construct validity. sixty participants simultaneously filled the p-meq and the freiburg mindfulness inventory (fmi-sf) to determine concurrent validity. to determine known-group validity, 23 very obese participants and a body mass index (bmi) of over 35 kg/m2 were compared to individuals with a healthy weight (bmi: 18.5-24.9 kg/m2). results: the test-retest reliability of the p-meq was obtained as 0.59 for the total score, and it ranged from 0.58 to 0.79 for the subscales. the first-order confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) results indicated that after removing four items with weak factor loading, the five-factor p-meq model had appropriate goodness of fit (χ2/df=2.516, rmsea=0.067, agfi=0.835, ifi=0.924, & cfi=0.916). the second-order cfa revealed that the latent components of awareness, distraction, disinhibition, emotional response, and external cues reflected the concept of higher levels of mindful eating acceptably (χ2/df=2.545, rmsea=0.067, agfi=0.825, ifi=0.912, & cfi=0.905). however, there was a poor relationship between the total score of p-meq and fmi-sf (r=0.24, p=0.07). conclusion: regardless of concurrent validity, the persian version of meq has proper construct validity, test-retest reliability, and internal consistency.