Objective: To evaluate a web-based nutritional knowledge questionnaire for primary-school children. Design: Children's nutritional knowledge was assessed in five domains: healthy choices (twenty-seven items), estimated recommended portions/servings (eight items), nutrient content (five items), main food function (five items) and categorization of food items (eight items). Setting: The questionnaires were completed in school. Subjects: A convenience sample of 576 Belgian children (aged 7-12 years) from fourteen primary schools completed the questionnaire once, 386 completed the questionnaire twice. Results: Healthy choices could be answered correctly by 73 % of the children, nutrients by 59 %, food categorization by 49 %, main function by 38 % and portion estimation by 36 %. Children's test-retest intra-class correlations were 0?75 for healthy choices, 0?33 for nutrients, 0?61 for food categorization, 0?44 for main function, 0?47 for portion estimation and 0?76 for the total scale. The intra-class correlation was lower in the youngest age group (grade 2: 0?51, grade 4: 0?65, grade 6: 0?66). The total score was significantly lower in the retest. The instrument was in general positively evaluated by the children. Conclusions: The instrument is a promising, practical, inexpensive tool with acceptable test-retest reliability in fourth and sixth graders.
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