Development and validation of a food literacy assessment tool for community-dwelling elderly people

Food literacy refers to the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for individuals to choose foods that promote health. As the rate of diet-related diseases increases, food literacy is becoming more important. However, there are no tools available to evaluate food literacy among the Korean elderly. We derived 547 questions from a literature review and, after three rounds of Delphi surveys, selected 33 preliminary questions. We calculated the content validity ratio of the questions and applied a face validity procedure. We then selected 32 questions, assessed their validity, and distributed them as a questionnaire to 205 elderly people. We then conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to determine the validity of the questionnaire and used an internal consistency index (Cronbach’s α coefficient) to determine reliability. Based on the factor analysis, 13 questions were selected, distributed among three factors, and evaluated using the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett sphericity tests. The factor analysis showed that KMO was 0.872, which is a highly acceptable score, and the Bartlett sphericity test was χ² = 1,374.69 at p = 0.00. The food literacy questionnaire developed in this study will likely be helpful for improving the healthcare of elderly people.