Development and Testing of a Nutrition, Food Safety, and Physical Activity Checklist for EFNEP and FSNE Adult Programs

Abstract

Objective To develop and assess reliability and validity of the Nutrition, Food Safety, and Physical Activity Checklist to measure nutrition, food safety, and physical activity practices among adult Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) and Food Stamp Nutrition Education program (FSNE) participants. Methods Test-retest reliability (Cronbach α), internal consistency (Pearson Correlation), criterion-related validity (Spearman Correlation Coefficients), and sensitivity-to-change, were calculated for dietary quality, food safety, and physical activity, based on data collected from 73 EFNEP and FSNE participants. Results Nutrition and physical activity domains achieved reliability coefficients of 0.70. The instrument scored Spearman correlation coefficients of 0.20 for nutrition, 0.34 for food safety, and 0.28 for physical activity. Conclusions and Implications The instrument consistently measured dietary and physical activity practices, but not food safety. All domains obtained low correlation coefficients, although consistent with other studies' validity results.