Development and validation testing of a weight management nutrition knowledge questionnaire for adults

• Published in: International Journal of Obesity Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 579 - 589
• Main Authors: Mikhail, Dalia, Rolls, Barbara, Yost, Kathleen, Balls-Berry, Joyce, Gall, Margaret, Blixt, Kristen, Novotny, Paul, Albertie, Monica, Jensen, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.03.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/499; 692/700/2814; Adult; Aged; Beverages; Body weight; Body Weight - physiology; Consistency; Convergence; Correlation; Criteria; Epidemiology; Evaluation; Flux density; Food; Food intake; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Promotion; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Health status indicators; Health surveys; Humans; Information sources; Information technology; Internal Medicine; Management; Medical research; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Medicine, Experimental; Metabolic Diseases; Middle Aged; Nutrition; Nutrition Surveys - methods; Nutrition Surveys - standards; Nutritionists; Obesity; Prevention; Public Health; Questionnaires; Questions; Reliability analysis; Reproducibility of Results; Validation studies; Validity; Weight Loss - physiology; United States
• ISSN: 0307-0565; 1476-5497; 1476-5497
• DOI: 10.1038/s41366-019-0510-1

Background/Objectives Because no validated tool exists to assess nutrition knowledge regarding weight management we developed and tested the Weight Management Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire (WMNKQ). Subjects/Methods The questionnaire assesses nutrition knowledge in these categories: energy density of food, portion size/serving size, alcohol and sugar sweetened beverages, how food variety affects food intake, and reliable nutrition information sources. In total 60 questions were reviewed by 6 experts for face validity and quantitative analysis was used to assess item difficulty, item discrimination, internal consistency, inter-item-correlation, test-retest reliability, construct validity, criterion validity, and convergent validity. Results The final WMNKQ contained 43 items. Experts removed 3 of the original 60 questions and modified 41. Eighteen items did not meet criteria for item difficulty, item discrimination, and/or inter-item correlation; 4 were retained. The WMNKQ met criteria for internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.88), reliability (test-retest correlation ρ = 0.90, P  < 0.0001), construct validity (known groups comparison) - dietitians scored 16% better ( p  < 0.0001) than information technology workers, and criterion validity (pre- to post-intervention improvement in knowledge scores = 11.2% (95% CI 9.8–12.5, p  < 0.0001)). Participants younger than age 55 scored significantly better than those over age 55 (convergent validity). Conclusions The WMNKQ measures how well nutrition principles of weight management are understood.