“ALIADA” educational nutrition intervention for adolescents: Content and preliminary face validity
Ana S. Flores-Vázquez, Norma P. Rodriguez-Rocha, Karina Franco-Paredes, Gabriela Macedo-OjedaBACKGROUND:
Educational nutrition interventions include diverse learning experiences aimed at improving specific populations’ eating behaviors. To ensure the success of these interventions, a thorough formative evaluation, careful planning of objectives and activities, and rigorous validation of the intervention are essential. In this study, the face and content validity of “ALIADA”, an educational nutrition intervention for adolescents based on the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), was carried out. To our knowledge, this is the first validated intervention program based on the SCT for Mexican adolescents in the late stage.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
The content validity was evaluated by 13 experts, including relevance, effectiveness, and appropriateness of each intervention activity. After modifications were made to the activities, five experts evaluated the revised version of the intervention. The Content Validity Index for each Item (I-CVI) and the Content Validity Index for the entire Series of Items (S-CVI) were used. Preliminary face validity was assessed qualitatively by 13 experts and six adolescents through open questions about the intervention’s feasibility and acceptability.
RESULTS:
In the first version of the intervention program, five activities (out of 23) did not obtain satisfactory I-CVI values in effectiveness; therefore, they were modified and their relationship with the intervention objectives was clarified. In the second version, most activities (30 out of 31) obtained satisfactory values. The S-CVI was adequate in both versions (0.93 and 0.97, respectively). The experts and the adolescents considered the intervention to be feasible and acceptable.
CONCLUSIONS:
The validation and improvement of interventions before their implementation are helpful to enhance the use of resources and increase the probability of the interventions’ effectiveness. The validation of “ALIADA” was successful; its implementation among adolescent students has the potential to improve their eating habits.