Preliminary evaluation of the Chinese version of the Baby Eating Behaviour Questionnaire.
Hao Zhang, Xianjun Yang, Tong Xu and 5 others
PMID 33811354WHAT IT FOUND
The Chinese Baby Eating Behaviour Questionnaire is a reliable tool for assessing infant appetite.
It retains four key factors matching the original UK version, though three items were removed to fix cultural translation issues. Scores differ by sex, gestational age, and weight gain.
Key findings
01The final Chinese version has 15 items and maintains the four original factors: food responsiveness, enjoyment of food, slowness in eating, and satiety responsiveness.
02All reliability coefficients exceeded 0.70, indicating good internal consistency and stability for the scale and its dimensions.
03Scores for satiety and food responsiveness differed significantly based on infant sex, gestational age, and monthly weight gain, supporting the tool's ability to discriminate between groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was drawn from only two hospitals in Xi'an, which may limit how well the results apply to other regions or populations in China. Criterion validity could not be assessed because no other established tool for evaluating baby eating behaviour exists in China for comparison. Parents reported on eating behaviours during the exclusive milk-feeding period, but many infants were older at the time of the survey, introducing potential recall bias where current behaviours influenced past reports. The study excluded infants with certain medical conditions and those not breastfeeding, so the tool's performance in more complex clinical cases is unknown.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this tool predicts long-term obesity or health outcomes. The study only validates the questionnaire's reliability and factor structure for assessing current eating behaviours. It does not prove that scores on this scale can predict future weight gain or chronic disease risk.