The Validation and Improvement of a Food Literacy Behavior Checklist for Food Literacy Programs

Food literacy is a multidimensional construct required to achieve diet quality. The Food Sensations(®) for Adults (FSA) program aims to improve the food literacy of low to middle-income adults living in Western Australia and is funded by the Western Australian Department of Health. The original published behavior checklist used to measure change in food literacy has been revised based on experience of the facilitators and the iterative development of the program. This research sought to assess the validity and reliability of the improved food literacy behavior checklist. A total of 1,359 participants completed the checklist over an 18-month period. Content, face, and construct validity were considered in the re-development of the checklist. An exploratory factor analysis of the checklist identified three factors: (1) Plan and Manage, (2) Selection, and (3) Preparation. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.883, 0.760, and 0.868 were found for each of the three factors respectively. These coefficients indicated good internal consistency and were higher than those found in the original checklist analysis. An external validation was undertaken with the original food literacy behavior checklist, and a strong positive relationship between the two tools was found. In addition to being used to evaluate FSA, this revised and extensively validated tool could provide guidance to others evaluating similar food literacy programs and contribute to international measurement research.