Development and test-retest reliability of a nutrition knowledge questionnaire for primary-school children.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate a web-based nutritional knowledge questionnaire for primary-school children.


METHODS
Children's nutritional knowledge was assessed in five domains: healthy choices (twenty-seven items), estimated recommended portions/servings (eight items), nutrient content (five items), main food function (five items) and categorization of food items (eight items).


METHODS
The questionnaires were completed in school.


METHODS
A convenience sample of 576 Belgian children (aged 7-12 years) from fourteen primary schools completed the questionnaire once, 386 completed the questionnaire twice.


RESULTS
Healthy choices could be answered correctly by 73 % of the children, nutrients by 59 %, food categorization by 49 %, main function by 38 % and portion estimation by 36 %. Children's test-retest intra-class correlations were 0·75 for healthy choices, 0·33 for nutrients, 0·61 for food categorization, 0·44 for main function, 0·47 for portion estimation and 0·76 for the total scale. The intra-class correlation was lower in the youngest age group (grade 2: 0·51, grade 4: 0·65, grade 6: 0·66). The total score was significantly lower in the retest. The instrument was in general positively evaluated by the children.


CONCLUSIONS
The instrument is a promising, practical, inexpensive tool with acceptable test-retest reliability in fourth and sixth graders.
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), Brussels, Belgium. carine.vereecken@ugent.be
Carine
C
Vereecken
Anneleen
A
De Pauw
Stefanie
S
Van Cauwenbergh
Lea
L
Maes
D001530:Belgium; D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002755:Choice Behavior; D002149:Energy Intake; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D005518:Food Preferences; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009753:Nutritive Value; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires