A tool for assessing the satisfaction of a diet: Development and preliminary validation of the Diet Satisfaction...

Adherence to dietary change is crucial for long-term benefit and a key element of adherence is the satisfaction of a given diet. We aimed to develop a brief questionnaire, suitable for use in clinical practice that can assess satisfaction with a diet, and to conduct preliminary evaluation of its reliability and validity.

The questionnaire was developed and drafts were sent to two expert panels for content review. The final questionnaire was assessed for internal consistency, face and construct validity, and test-retest reliability. Expert feedback was provided by nine clinicians/researchers. The tool was assessed in three phases in different international populations who were recruited using social media. It included adults who were currently following a diet (total n = 1604), and those who had recently abandoned their diet (phase 3 only).

The Diet Satisfaction Score consisted of 10 items measuring one dimension (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85), and participants had a mean total Diet Satisfaction Score of 3.7 (SD = 0.50) from a possible range of 1 to 5. Test-retest reliability was good as indicated by an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.64 and a mean difference (95% confidence interval, CI) between repeated test scores of 0.03 (-0.02, 0.09). Each 1-point increase in Diet Satisfaction Score was associated with longer diet duration by 1.7 weeks (95% CI = 1.5, 2.0, P < .001).

The Diet Satisfaction Score showed good reliability and preliminary validity and may be a useful clinical tool for assessing diet satisfaction and has the potential to predict adherence.