Development of Dietary Knowledge and Adherence Questionnaires for Lebanese Adolescents and Their Parents

Abstract

The availability of practical tools to assess dietary knowledge and adherence is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary interventions. The aims of this paper were to develop reliable dietary knowledge and adherence questionnaires, suitable for Lebanese adolescents and their parents, and to estimate the feasibility of conducting studies involving such participants in the school-based setting. Eight Lebanese high schools participated in this study (involving 220 adolescents aged 15–18 years). Self-administered dietary knowledge and adherence questionnaires (the Dietary Knowledge Questionnaire (DKQ) and the Dietary Adherence Questionnaire (DAQ), respectively) were completed by the high school students and their parents. A 24 h recall was additionally administered for the adolescents by a dietitian and a trained interviewer at school, in order to validate the adolescents’ answers in the DAQ. The cognitive interview method was used to qualitatively evaluate the questionnaires. The resulting Cronbach’s alpha ranged from 0.61 to 0.78 for the adolescent questionnaires and from 0.46 to 0.89 for the parental ones. In addition, 23 items (out of 25) of the adolescent DAQ matched with the administered 24 h recall. A significant negative correlation was found between the knowledge score (DKQ) and the unhealthy items of the adolescent DAQ. There was a significant positive correlation between the DKQ of the parents and the knowledge score of their children. This is the first study of dietary questionnaires involving Lebanese high school students from different regions, while also including their parents.