The current study yielded a concise and structured tool for the efficient and dependable assessment of lifestyle and behavioural factors for weight management in YAs, with potential for application in both clinical and research settings. This questionnaire comprises a four-factor, 17-item instrument designed to evaluate lifestyle-related behaviours and barriers associated with maintaining a healthy lifestyle among YAs (Table 6). The questionnaire has exhibited satisfactory levels of internal consistency and test-retest reliability.
Previous studies on different age groups have taken diet, physical activity, and sleep as the main components to develop lifestyle-related questionnaires. Similarly, the present study has encompassed items related to these domains with an emphasis on the unique challenges of YAs. However, during the course of the study and subsequent EFA, it was observed that items pertaining to the sleep domain did not load significantly in the factor analysis. Consequently, these sleep-related items were excluded to facilitate confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). This outcome suggests that, in the context of weight management among young adults, sleep may not play a significant role(17). Furthermore, within the physical activity domain, an item assessing the time spent in sedentary activities did not load in the final model due to the ‘flooring effect’. This phenomenon occurred because a substantial majority of participants reported spending more than eight hours engaged in sedentary activities(3,18,19). This finding is concerning, as it underscores the prevalence of sedentary behaviour among the target population. It highlights the need for immediate interventions in educational institutions, workplaces, and communities, emphasising the importance of increasing non-exercise-related activity thermogenesis for maintaining a healthy weight(20).
The items that successfully loaded in the final construct demonstrated alignment with the latent construct and provided support for the theoretical framework, which posits that lifestyle plays a pivotal role in weight management(15). Within the dietary assessment, the questions encompassed regular meal patterns, dietary diversity, consumption of high-fat, high-sugar, and high-salt (HFSS) foods, as well as aspects of emotional and mindful eating(21). In the physical activity domain, the questionnaire assessed levels of physical activity and the role of mediators such as stress, media exposure, social support, and various environmental triggers in poor dietary and physical activity-related behaviour (3,21,22). The final items included in the four-factor model were confirmed through multiple rounds of analysis, incorporating both EFA and CFA. This robust validation process reinforces the questionnaire's validity, reliability, and theoretical underpinnings.
The study has several notable strengths as it overcomes the shortcomings of previously developed, unstructured, unvalidated questionnaires or checklists and the limitations of using multiple validated tools. It is also designed explicitly for YAs with a solid methodological foundation. Additionally, the questionnaire has the potential for wide applicability in clinical, public health, and research settings and to reduce the need for rigorously trained personnel for assessment and analysis. The questionnaires can also be longitudinally administered during follow-up visits to assess the effectiveness of interventions. Furthermore, it can contribute to generating consistent sets of predictors that contribute to the increasing trend of obesity and related lifestyle disorders in young adults thereby informing policy responses for obesity prevention. Additionally, researchers can utilise the consistent dataset to develop predictive models that explain the interaction between different factors and accurately predict the weight loss or weight gain trajectory in various population groups. However, there are a few noteworthy limitations of the study as well: the sample was selected based on convenience sampling, and despite the best effort, there was a lower contribution of a lower socio-economic population and university students. Despite the promising psychometric properties, further validation can be done by examining predictive and concurrent validity.
In conclusion, this study has successfully developed a concise and reliable questionnaire for assessing obesity-related factors in young adults, addressing the limitations of prior unstructured tools and the challenges of using multiple validated instruments. The questionnaire, with its solid methodology, holds promise for widespread use in clinical, research, and public health settings, facilitating assessments and interventions. Its longitudinal applicability can inform obesity prevention strategies and predictive models.