Validation of conceptual and methodological framework for the study of dietary practices and nutritional status of an adult population.

Background: The use of validated and reliable methods and instruments is necessary to study dietary practices and nutritional status due to their direct impacts on population health.

Objective: The aim is the validity and reliability of the conceptual and methodological framework of research on factors associated with dietary practices and nutritional status (FADPNS), carried out on adult population of the Rabat-Salé-Kenitra region in Morocco.

Material and methods: First, we developed a conceptual and methodological framework for research on FADPNS, which aimed to study dietary practices, nutritional status, and the factors associated with them in an adult Moroccan population. Then, we studied the validity and reliability of this framework in three phases. Phase 1 focused on the validation of the content of the conceptual and methodological framework, Phase 2 focused on the study by an expert committee of the internal consistency validity (ICV) of the questionnaires used in this research , and Phase 3 consisted of the study of the reliability of the items questionnaires by the test of Cronbach Alpha.

Results: Thus, the validated content of the conceptual framework of research on FADPNS includes socio-demographic, socio-economic, and socio-cultural characteristics; health status; physical activity, places of food purchase; food preparation, taking of meals, family commensality; social representations of good dietary practices; food consumption; and nutritional status. The questionnaires used in this research received an ICV score of 85%. The reliability test of the questionnaires showed a Cronbach Alpha value ≥ 0.5, which turned out to vary from "moderate" to "excellent".

Conclusion: This work enabled the validation of the conceptual framework and the methodology of the study of the factors associated with dietary practices and nutritional status in the RSK region.