Validation of an instrument to measure food practices in chilean families of school children aged 4-7 years Validación de un instrumento para evaluar prácticas alimentarias en familias chilenas de escolares de 4 a 7 años

Abstract

Introduction: It is necessary to assess family food habits in school children to cope with infant obesity. Objective: Designing and validation of an instrument to measure food habits and food knowledge in Chilean preschool and school families based on dietary guidelines. Methods: A study in 30 preschool and school-age parents was carried-out. A questionnaire to measure food habits and food knowledge in parents was elaborated by researchers considering an expert group opinion. This questionnaire was applied twice with a 15 days interval, evaluating temporal stability, internal consistency and inter-personal agreement. Afterwards, the questionnaire was applied to 59 parents calculating the internal consistency of the instrument. Results: The questionnaire had 55 questions in 4 sections. The instrument had questions about food and nutrition information about the families. A good interpersonal agreement resulted for almost all the questions about food and nutrition information (0.5-1.0). T