Development and validation of Attitude Toward Nutrition Counselling Questionnaire for use among Kuwaiti healthcare professionals.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to report the developmental processes and validation of Attitude Toward Nutrition Questionnaire in Arabic language. RESULTS: A total of 173 (response rate = 86.93%) participants responded to the survey. There were a total of 92 (53.2%) nutritionists and 81(46.8%) doctors/surgeons. Principal component analyses revealed followed by visualization of Cattell's scree plot, suggested a four-factor solution for the 36-item Attitude Toward Nutrition Counselling Questionnaire. It was found to have an acceptable validity. These four factors cumulatively explained 37.9% of the variance in the factor structure of the ATNQ. Cronbach's alpha revealed an acceptable level of reliability for each subscale of the ATNQ. The first subscale named "Factual knowledge about nutrition" comprised of nine items. It yielded a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.78. The second subscale "knowledge about nutrition in morbidities" comprised of seven items and yielded a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.71. The third subscale "counselling of patients" comprised of 11 items and yielded a Cronbach's alpha of 0.68. The fourth subscale comprising nine items yielded a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.64 and was named, "Dietary programs and supplementation".