[Validity of an instrument for assessing food consumption, food habits and cooking skills in 8-11 years old students].
BACKGROUND
An instrument to measure food knowledge, food consumption, cooking skills, food habits and food expenses at school is necessary to assess changes in food practices.


OBJECTIVE
To validate an instrument to measure changes in food knowledge, food consumption, cooking skills, food habits and food expenses in Chilean school children 8 - 11 years from third to fifth grade.


METHODS
A validation of a questionnaire with 42 questions was conducted in two stages: the first to assess temporal stability, concordance and internal consistency in 45 children. The second one to apply the survey, modified with the results of the first stage, in 90 children assessing internal consistency.


RESULTS
The first survey with 42 questions showed a reasonable temporal stability, concordance and internal consistency for cooking skills, habits and food expenditure at school. Internal consistency was good for food consumption, but not so good for food knowledge. In the final validation with 90 children, there was good consistency for food consumption but bad for food knowledge. Besides, children with cooking skills ate more healthy food and those who expended more money at school, consumed less healthy food.


CONCLUSIONS
Food knowledge questions were eliminated from the instrument, which was elaborated with 28 questions about food consumption, cooking skills, food habits and food expenses at school. This instrument is useful to assess changes in food and nutrition education interventions in 8 -11 years children, in particular to measure cooking skills and food expenses at school.
Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos (INTA), Universidad de Chile.. llera@inta.uchile.cl.
Lydia
L
Lera
Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos (INTA), Universidad de Chile.. gfretes@gmail.com.
Gabriela
G
Fretes
Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos (INTA), Universidad de Chile.. carmen.gonzalez@inta.uchile.cl.
Carmen Gloria
CG
González
Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos (INTA), Universidad de Chile.. jsalinas@inta.uchile.cl.
Judith
J
Salinas
Instituto de Nutrición y Tecnología de los Alimentos (INTA), Universidad de Chile.. fvio@inta.uchile.cl.
Fernando
F
Vio del Rio
D002648:Child; D002677:Chile; D003296:Cooking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004034:Diet Surveys; D004435:Eating; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students