Progressing the development of a food literacy questionnaire using cognitive interviews.

Courtney Thompson,Jean Adams,Helen Anna Vidgen

doi:10.1017/s1368980021004560

Courtney Thompson, Jean Adams + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1017/s1368980021004560

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Abstract

Food literacy is the knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to meet food needs and determine intake and is conceptualised as eleven components under four domains of planning and managing, selecting, preparing, and eating. Previous measures of food literacy vary in their adherence to the conceptualisation and ability to capture totality of eating. This study aimed to determine items for inclusion and exclusion in a food literacy item pool and capture the general public's interpretation of everyday food literacy practices. Beginning with an item pool from previous studies, cognitive interviews were conducted using think-aloud and verbal probing methods. Data were first analysed for applicability, clarity, ambiguity and logic, then for emergent themes to ensure items captured the totality of the participant's eating. Australia. Australian residents over 18 years of age recruited via Facebook residential groups (n 20). Of the original 116 items, 11 items had limited applicability; 13 items had unclear references; 32 items had lexical problems and 11 items had logical problems. In total, 29 items were deleted, 31 retained and 56 revised. Thematic analysis revealed participants limited their responses to consider only conventional practices such as grocery shopping, cooking and planned meals rather than the totality of their eating. An additional eighty-four items were developed to address eating out, incidental eating occasions and inconsistencies between participants assumed correct knowledge and that of public health guidelines. This resulted in a refined 171-item pool. This study progresses the development towards a comprehensive, validated food literacy questionnaire.

Highlights

MethodsA method used to study understanding, mental processing and responses to material presented[14], was chosen for two reasons
Cognitive interviews extend beyond simple face validity techniques often employed in food literacy research to determine which items are unclear and how they are unclear to guide questionnaire revisions
This study refined an item pool that reflects the four domains and eleven components of food literacy described by Vidgen & Gallegos[1] and provided insight into food literacy practices of Australian adults

Summary

Methods

A method used to study understanding, mental processing and responses to material presented[14], was chosen for two reasons. Cognitive interviews extend beyond simple face validity techniques often employed in food literacy research (see online supplementary material, Supplemental Table S2) to determine which items are unclear and how they are unclear to guide questionnaire revisions. Food literacy cognitive interviews report on two key procedures that characterise cognitive interview methods: think-aloud and verbal probing. These methods are commonly cited, often used in health research[19,20,21,22,23] and more broadly consider the background social context that influences questionnaire items[24,25]. Think-aloud methods ask the participant to verbalise thinking as they answer the question[26], while verbal probing involves the interviewer asking the participant probe questions to further elucidate thinking; these probes can relate to comprehension, interpretation, confidence, judgement or recall and can be scripted or unscripted[18,27]

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Discussion

Conclusion