Table 3.

Summary of comments provided by the expert panel and response by the research team in Round 1.

Expert Suggestions and Comments		Changes Made or Clarifications
Questionnaire instructions and requirements	Include instructions to participants, with a clear recall period.	New section: “Instructions to participants” as suggested.
	Improve questionnaire format and layout.	As suggested, particularly: -Outcomes “Times of first/last eating occasion” removed, as they are captured by “Times of main meals and snacks”. -Outcomes “Wake time” and “Sleep time” are captured as one outcome, and re-arranged to be before outcomes on “Meal regularity”, “Times of main meals and snacks…”, and “Time of largest meal”.
	Improve choice of wording	As suggested.
Demographic data	Include questions about: -Shift schedule -Start and end times of each shift	New section: “Demographics”, to gather data as suggested.
Outcomes of interest	Instead of “weekdays” and weekends”, use “work/school” and “work-free/school-free days”.	As suggested.
	Consider limitations of asking about sleep/wake patterns only on specific shift and free-day scenarios that not all shift workers have as part of their shift schedules.	Shift and free-day scenarios were based on the MCTQShift. It is acknowledged that shift workers whose shifts don’t align with these scenarios cannot be chronotyped.
	Determine alarm clock use for waking, as in the MCTQ (waking up without an alarm clock better indicates circadian phase and estimation of chronotype).	Participants asked to state wake up time if able to choose freely (without using an alarm clock and unaffected by children/pets, hobbies) following the ultra-short MCTQ and MCTQ.
	What is the time window for “day of a morning/afternoon/night shift” within which temporal patterns of eating are captured?	Updated definitions.
	Consider that timing of eating occasions “on a work-free day” for shift workers may be affected by the prior day’s shift type.	Updated to “on a work-free day after a work-free day” to minimise influence of the prior day’s shift type on timing of eating occasions.
	Will variation in timing of food intake within the same day type be captured?	Slight variations captured by asking about “typical” times. Otherwise, identified by question on regularity.
	Better capture concept of regularity -Refine definition of “regular”. -Consider Likert scale instead of Yes/No. -Should it be determined separately between each day type, or continuously across all days of the week? -Should regularity of each meal type be determined separately?	-Updated definition -Captured by Likert scale of Never, 25%/50%/75% of the time, Always. -Determined separately between each day type (refer to Discussion). -Determined across all main meals, not separately by meal type (refer to Discussion).
	Consider if one has two meals that are equally large.	Updated to ask about time of largest meal(s).
	Is defining largest meal by portion size too subjective?	No change (refer to Discussion).
	Instead of time of largest meal, consider time when most calories are consumed (drinks and snacks may contain more than a meal).
	Refine definitions of terms.	As suggested.
Additional outcomes to include	-Sleep latency and quality -Duration of each eating occasion -Temporal variation of sensations such as hunger, appetite, and satiety -Diet composition	Not included.