Development and Validation of a Short Questionnaire Assessing the Behavior of Local Food Procurement in Quebec, Canada.

Background: Very few validated instruments, particularly screening tools applicable to large-cohort studies, are available to assess the behavior of local food procurement. Objective: The aim was to develop and validate a short questionnaire that measures local food procurement in a sample of French-speaking adults from Quebec, Canada, and to assess the association between local food-procurement behavior and diet quality. Methods: A comprehensive questionnaire developed previously to measure local food procurement [Locavore-Index (Locavore-I)] was simplified through a series of steps that included face-validity, exploratory factor analysis, and reliability testing (internal consistency). Construct validity of the resulting short Locavore-I Short Form (Locavore-I-SF) was examined in a sample of 299 adults (85% women) from the Quebec City metropolitan community. Results: The Locavore-I-SF comprises 12 questions that measure the frequency of short food supply chain use (self-production, farmers' markets, and community-supported agriculture box scheme) for 3 locally produced foods (carrot, tomato, and lettuce) as well as the geographical origin of those 3 foods. The Locavore-I-SF, which is scored on a 12-point scale, had a high internal consistency (Cronbach ɑ: 0.74). The Locavore-I-SF scores were strongly correlated with the reference scores obtained from the Locavore-I from which it was developed ( Conclusions: The Locavore-I-SF, a short questionnaire based on 3 locally produced foods in Quebec, measures the behavior of local food procurement with good reliability and acceptable validity metrics.