Psychometric Properties of the Food Environment Assessment Survey Tool (FEAST) in People with Mobility Impairment.

OBJECTIVE Approximately one in ten adults under the age of 65 in the U.S. has a mobility impairing disability. People with mobility impairment generally have poorer dietary habits contributing to obesity and related negative health outcomes. This manuscript presents the psychometric properties of the FEAST instrument that measures barriers to accessing healthy food from the perspective of people with mobility impairment. DESIGN This study presents cross sectional data from two sequential independent surveys. SETTING Surveys were administered online to a national sample of people with mobility impairment. PARTICIPANTS Participants represented PMI living throughout the US. The pilot FEAST survey involved 681 participants and was used to shape the final instrument; 25% completed a re-test survey. After following empirically and theoretically guided item reduction strategies, the final FEAST instrument was administered to a separate sample of 304 people with mobility impairment. RESULTS The final 27-item FEAST instrument includes items measuring Neighborhood Environment, Home Environment, Personal Control, and Access to Support (Having Help, Food Delivery Services, Parking/Transportation). The final four scales had acceptable intraclass correlations, indicating that the scales could be used as reliable measures of the hypothesized constructs in future studies. CONCLUSIONS The FEAST instrument is the first of its kind developed to assess the food environment from the perspective of PMI themselves. Future studies would benefit from using this measure in research and practice to help guide development of policy aimed at improving access to healthy food and promoting healthy eating in community dwelling people with mobility impairment.