Adherence to the Mediterranean diet in a sample of Colombian schoolchildren: an evaluation of the psychometric properties of the KIDMED questionnaire

Abstract

Objective: since childhood and adolescence are critical periods for the acquisition of eating habits and lifestyles that will persist into adulthood, having a questionnaire that estimates adherence to the Mediterranean diet among the school-age population is necessary. The aim of this study was to assess the validity, reliability, and factor structure of the KIDMED questionnaire in a group of children and adolescents from Cali, Colombia. Methods: this was a cross-sectional study using a self-reported questionnaire in 167 schoolchildren (53.8% girls, mean age 13.3 ± 3.2 years). Cronbach's alpha and Cohen's kappa (κ) were calculated as reliability and reproducibility indicators. The extraction of main components by varimax rotation allowed to define the communalities of the proposed items as a measure of validity. Results: overall, one in every 3 schoolchildren showed an optimal Mediterranean diet pattern. The KIDMED questionnaire showed moderate reliability and reproducibility values (Cronbach's alpha = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.71-0.77, and κ = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.45-0.77). The factor structure showed six factors that accounted for 60.6% of the total variance with an adequate goodness-of-fit test (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin = 0.730), and Bartlett's sphericity test (X2 = 414.8, p < 0.001, g/l = 120). Conclusions: the KIDMED questionnaire shown evidence adequate psychometric properties as an instrument for assessing adherence for assessing adherence to the Mediterranean diet in schoolchildren in Colombia. Future studies should focus on investigating the confirmatory structure and/or convergent validity of the questionnaire in different age groups for generating comparable data.