Reliability and validity of a General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire for adults in a Romanian population.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Nutritional knowledge assessment is an important component in nutrition research, and a prerequisite for the implementation of many policies and programs aimed at improving eating behavior. In order to generate objective results, validated tools for a given population must be employed. The aim of this study was to determine the validity and reliability of a nutrition knowledge questionnaire for Romanian adults. METHODS: Kleimann's version of a General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire, was translated and adapted to Romanian language, culture, and cuisine. The final format was developed in several steps and used four components internal and external reliability were assessed in a general population sample (n1 = 412), respectively in a subgroup (n2 = 46) from Component 1; Component 3 assessed construct validity (n3 = 96) using the "known-groups" method; Component 4 (convergent validity, n4 = 508) tested the association between socio-demographic characteristics and nutrition knowledge. RESULTS: The overall internal reliability was 0.878 and the external reliability was >0.880 in all sections, and overall. Specialists had higher scores than nonspecialists, with a very large effect size. In the general population, females scored higher than males, and middle-aged and older adults scored higher than young adults. Higher scores were associated with higher levels of education. The characteristics of individuals prone to giving wrong answers were males (beta = 0.170), high school or less (beta = 0.167), and no training in nutrition (beta = 0.154). CONCLUSIONS: The Romanian version of the General Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire is a reliable and valid tool for measuring nutrition knowledge in adults.