Abstract
Objective
To test the reliability and validity of the Nutrition Literacy Assessment Instrument
(NLit) in adult primary care and identify the relationship between nutrition literacy
and diet quality.
Design
This instrument validation study included a cross-sectional sample participating in
up to 2 visits 1 month apart.
Setting/Participants
A total of 429 adults with nutrition-related chronic disease were recruited from clinics
and a patient registry affiliated with a Midwestern university medical center.
Main Outcome Measures
Nutrition literacy was measured by the NLit, which was composed of 6 subscales: nutrition
and health, energy sources in food, food label and numeracy, household food measurement,
food groups, and consumer skills. Diet quality was measured by Healthy Eating Index–2010
with nutrient data from Diet History Questionnaire II surveys.
Analysis
The researchers measured factor validity and reliability by using binary confirmatory
factor analysis; test-retest reliability was measured by Pearson r and the intraclass correlation coefficient, and relationships between nutrition literacy
and diet quality were analyzed by linear regression.
Results
The NLit demonstrated substantial factor validity and reliability (0.97; confidence
interval, 0.96–0.98) and test-retest reliability (0.88; confidence interval, 0.85–0.90).
Nutrition literacy was the most significant predictor of diet quality (β = .17; multivariate
coefficient = 0.10; P < .001).
Conclusions
The NLit is a valid and reliable tool for measuring nutrition literacy in adult primary
care patients.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: December 12, 2017
Accepted:
October 19,
2017
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: The authors' conflict of interest disclosures can be found online with this article on www.jneb.org.
Identification
Copyright
© 2017 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.
