Psychometric Validation of a Nutrition Knowledge Questionnaire among Parents of 3–6-Year-Old Asian Indian Children in East Barddhaman District, West Bengal, India

BACKGROUND: In India, virtually, no study was aimed to develop a psychometrically valid and reliable questionnaire to assess the nutrition knowledge and practice among parents of children aged between 3 and 6 years. OBJECTIVE: The present study describes an evaluation of validity and reliability measures in a questionnaire designed for the assessment of nutrition knowledge among parents of children participating in a study finding relationship between physical growth and development and nonverbal intelligence quotient development being undertaken in a semi-urban area. DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional school-based reliability and validity study. SETTING: This study was conducted in seven primary schools within the limits of Purba (East) Barddhaman district legislation, West Bengal, India. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred and thirty-four parents of children aged 3–6 years were included in the study. RESULTS: The final questionnaire consisted of 32 questions that were selected on the basis of content validity. Questions included closed-ended and multiple-choice items which could be answered correctly by 5%–95% of the target population with a difficulty index of 0.33–0.87, discrimination index of 0.12–0.44, and validity index of 0.10–0.86. Internal reliability of each item as measured by Cronbach's α of 0.87 was also significant. CONCLUSIONS: The test comprises basic psychometric criteria of a valid and reliable 32-item knowledge questionnaire which further forms an instrument for measuring current scenario and interpreting changes associated with intervention work aiming improvement of dietary and nutrition knowledge-practice in the middle-to-low socioeconomic community.