Middle school nutrition knowledge tool development and evaluation in North Carolina.

Area of Science:

• Nutrition Education
• Educational Assessment
• Public Health

Background:

• Nutrition knowledge is fundamental for lifelong health.
• Current assessment tools may not adequately measure nutrition knowledge aligned with educational standards.
• The North Carolina (NC) Healthful Living Essential Standards provide a framework for nutrition education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a nutrition knowledge instrument for North Carolina (NC) eighth-grade students.
• To assess student nutrition knowledge based on the NC Healthful Living Essential Standards.
• To identify areas of strength and weakness in student nutrition knowledge.

Main Methods:

• A 22-question nutrition knowledge questionnaire was developed and administered to 250 eighth-grade students across 16 classrooms.
• The questionnaire was aligned with specific NC Healthful Living Essential Standards.
• Instrument reliability and validity (face) were assessed, along with item difficulty and discrimination indexes.

Main Results:

• The developed instrument demonstrated acceptable item difficulty and discrimination, with 17 out of 20 items showing good discrimination.
• Students achieved an average total nutrition knowledge score of 53.7%.
• Performance varied by standard, with the highest scores in 'creating plans for lifelong health' (79%) and the lowest in 'evaluating health information' (37.6%).

Conclusions:

• Eighth-grade students may possess only half the expected nutrition knowledge based on the assessed standards.
• The study highlights the need for further instrument development to provide standardized methods for measuring nutrition knowledge.
• Findings underscore the importance of targeted nutrition education interventions to address knowledge gaps.