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[Validity and reliability of the nutrition knowledge questionnaire for Chinese school-aged children]
Yujie Qiu1, Caicui Ding1, Yan Zhang1
1National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100050, China.
Objective:
To evaluate and validate the nutrition knowledge questionnaire for Chinese school-aged children.
Methods:
In September 2023, a convenience sampling method was used to select one primary school, one junior high school, and one senior high school respectively in Suqian City's Sucheng District of Jiangsu Province and Dayi County of Chengdu City in Sichuan Province for a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire's reliability(Cronbach's alpha, split-half reliability) and validity(face validity, structural validity) were evaluated using quantitative method.
Results:
A total of 1017 participants took part in the survey, including 251 lower-grade primary school students(grades 1-3), 249 upper-grade primary school students(grade 4 and above), 262 junior high school students, and 255 senior high school students. Among them, 480(47.2%) were from urban areas, 473(46.5%) were male, and the mean age was(11.9±3.6) years. The Cronbach's α coefficients for the four versions of the questionnaire were 0.54, 0.76, 0.79 and 0.79, respectively. The Guttman split-half coefficients were 0.58, 0.63, 0.66 and 0.72, respectively. Validity analysis indicated that the investigators and teachers generally approved of the questionnaire design. In the confirmatory factor analysis, the chi-square/degrees of freedom(χ~2/df) ranged from 1.49 to 1.66, the root mean square error of approximation(RMSEA) ranged from 0.04 to 0.05, and the goodness-of-fit index(GFI) ranged from 0.88 to 0.92. The correlations between each dimension and the total score were significantly higher than the correlations between the dimensions themselves.
Conclusion:
The lower primary school version of the questionnaire requires further refinement. In contrast, the versions for upper primary, junior high, and senior high school demonstrate satisfactory validity and reliability with well-structured dimensions, making them appropriate for assessing nutrition knowledge and supporting related research among students in the corresponding educational stages.
