A questionnaire assessment of nutrition knowledge--validity and reliability issues

Area of Science:

• Child Nutrition
• Educational Psychology
• Public Health Interventions

Background:

• Dietary interventions in after-school programs aim to improve children's nutrition knowledge.
• Assessing the effectiveness of such programs requires reliable and valid measurement tools.
• Children in areas of high social disadvantage often have the greatest need for nutritional support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the validity and reliability of a questionnaire assessing applied nutrition knowledge in children.
• To assess knowledge of applied nutrition (KN), food preparation (KP), and perceived confidence in cooking skills (PC).
• To establish an instrument suitable for measuring changes from dietary interventions.

Main Methods:

• The study involved 98 children aged 11 in primary schools in Dundee and Newcastle.
• Four pilot studies were conducted to assess item reliability, test-retest reliability, discrimination, difficulty, and validity (content, cognitive, face).
• The final 36-item questionnaire was self-completed in under 15 minutes.

Main Results:

• The final questionnaire included 18 KN, 9 KP, and 9 PC items.
• Knowledge questions had acceptable difficulty (5-95% correct) and discrimination (0.06-0.83) indices.
• Significant retest reliability (KN: 0.458, KP: 0.577, PC: 0.381) and internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha) were found.

Conclusions:

• The questionnaire meets psychometric criteria for reliability and validity.
• It is a suitable instrument for measuring changes in food and dietary knowledge.
• The validated tool can support evaluations of childhood nutrition interventions.