Abstract
Objective
To create a tool to measure college students’ functional, interactive, and critical
nutrition literacy.
Design
(1) Focus group: item generation, (2) expert review, (3) exploratory factor structure
analysis, (4) item refinement and modification, (5) factor structure validation, and
(6) criterion validation.
Setting
Two land-grant college campuses.
Participants
College students aged between 18 and 24 years.
Main Outcome Measures
Survey data was used to assess nutrition literacy.
Analysis
Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), item response theory
(IRT) analyses, and correlations.
Results
One-hundred and twenty-three items were generated and tested in an online survey format.
Items were eliminated on the basis of face validity, expert feedback, exploratory
factor analysis, and CFA/IRT. The 3 measures (functional, interactive, and critical)
were analyzed separately. All 3 measures showed reasonable model fit in the CFA/IRT
models. Criterion validity showed small to medium effect sizes between measures and
fruit/vegetable intake. Reliability estimates met reasonable standards for each measure.
Conclusions and Implications
The Young Adult Nutrition Literacy Tool is a novel instrument that measures all 3
domains of nutrition literacy. Strengths include a rigorous 6-step development process,
reasonable psychometric properties, and a large breadth of items.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 22, 2022
Accepted:
January 30,
2022
Footnotes
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: The authors have not stated any conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
