Application of exploratory factor analysis to assess fish consumption in a university community

• Autor(a) principal: Maciel,Erika da Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Savay-da-Silva,Luciana Kimie, Vasconcelos,Júlia Santos, Galvão,Juliana Antunes, Sonati,Jaqueline Girnos, Silva,Dirceu da, Oetterer,Marília
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Food Science and Technology (Campinas)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0101-20612013000100015
• topic: fish consumption; quality of life; questionnaire; exploratory factor analysis

The objective of this research was to use the technique of Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) for the adequacy of a tool for the assessment of fish consumption and the characteristics involved in this process. Data were collected during a campaign to encourage fish consumption in Brazil with the voluntarily participation of members of a university community. An assessment instrument consisting of multiple-choice questions and a five-point Likert scale was designed and used to measure the importance of certain attributes that influence the choice and consumption of fish. This study sample was composed of of 224 individuals, the majority were women (65.6%). With regard to the frequency of fish consumption, 37.67% of the volunteers interviewed said they consume the product two or three times a month, and 29.6% once a week. The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to group the variables; the extraction was made using the principal components and the rotation using the Quartimax method. The results show clusters in two main constructs, quality and consumption with Cronbach Alpha coefficients of 0.75 and 0.69, respectively, indicating good internal consistency.