Development and Validation of an Instrument to Evaluate Perceived Wellbeing Associated with the Ingestion of Water: The Water Ingestion-Related Wellbeing Instrument (WIRWI)

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 7; p. e0158567
• Main Authors: Espinosa-Montero, Juan, Monterrubio-Flores, Eric A, Sanchez-Estrada, Marcela, Buendia-Jimenez, Inmaculada, Lieberman, Harris R, Allaert, François-Andre, Barquera, Simon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 07.07.2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Analysis; Biology and Life Sciences; Body mass index; Cardiovascular disease; Chronic illnesses; Correlation; Correlation analysis; Diabetes; Drinking; Eating; Emotions; Epidemiology; Factor analysis; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Fatigue; Feeding Behavior; Female; Fluid; Fluids; Health; Humans; Hydration; Hypertension; Ingestion; Kidney diseases; Male; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metabolic syndrome; Mexico; Middle Aged; Nutrition; Obesity; People and places; Perceptions; Physical Sciences; Population; Poverty; Psychometrics; Public health; Quality of Life; Reproducibility; Reproducibility of Results; Research and Analysis Methods; Sedentary Behavior; Social Sciences; Socio-economic aspects; Socioeconomic factors; Statistical analysis; Systematic review; Thirst; Urban Population; Urine; Water; Water consumption; Water intake; Water intakes; Water shortages; Young Adult; Mexico; France; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158567

Ingestion of water has been associated with general wellbeing. When water intake is insufficient, symptoms such as thirst, fatigue and impaired memory result. Currently there are no instruments to assess water consumption associated with wellbeing. The objective of our study was to develop and validate such an instrument in urban, low socioeconomic, adult Mexican population. To construct the Water Ingestion-Related Wellbeing Instrument (WIRWI), a qualitative study in which wellbeing related to everyday practices and experiences in water consumption were investigated. To validate the WIRWI a formal, five-process procedure was used. Face and content validation were addressed, consistency was assessed by exploratory and confirmatory psychometric factor analyses, repeatability, reproducibility and concurrent validity were assessed by conducting correlation tests with other measures of wellbeing such as a quality of life instrument, the SF-36, and objective parameters such as urine osmolality, 24-hour urine total volume and others. The final WIRWI is composed of 17 items assessing physical and mental dimensions. Items were selected based on their content and face validity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded Cronbach's alpha of 0.87 and 0.86, respectively. The final confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated that the model estimates were satisfactory for the constructs. Statistically significant correlations with the SF-36, total liquid consumption and simple water consumption were observed. The resulting WIRWI is a reliable tool for assessing wellbeing associated with consumption of plain water in Mexican adults and could be useful for similar groups.