Introduction:

Congenital defects are the leading cause of child mortality in developed countries and the second in many developing countries.

Objective:

Validate a questionnaire about risk factors for congenital defects related to folic acid deficiency.

Methods:

Validation was based on a dynamic process of feedback and changing decision-making geared by expert criteria for which use was made of the Delphi method in three stages: selection of experts, analysis and validation of each item by the experts and further re-evaluation, and conduct of a pilot study. Kendall and Friedman's coefficient of concordance was estimated to determine the agreement or similarities between the answers provided by the evaluators.

Results:

Eighteen highly-qualified experts were selected based on the knowledge and argumentation coefficients estimated. In the second version of the questionnaire the answers provided by experts coincided in awarding the higher category of 'very good', and there was concordance in the experts' response level.

Conclusions:

The questionnaire designed is characterized by optimal levels of content validity and feasibility to identify risk factors for congenital defects related to folic acid deficiency.

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