Background

Although poor dietary habits have a great effect on the health status of children, especially in toddlers, a few questionnaires exist for the assessment of dietary imbalances. This study aims to assess the validity and reliability of the NutriCHEQ in Iranian healthy toddlers.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, first, the NutriCHEQ was translated to Persian and culturally adapted by the forward-backward translation technique. In order to assess the face validity, we used a cognitive interviewing technique of 25 parents/caretakers of healthy toddlers. In the next step, experts assessed content validity, respectively. One item was removed during the content validity process. Then, a blueprint of NutriCHEQ was distributed among 156 parents/caretakers of healthy toddlers in different focal points in Tehran for assessing construct validity by nonlinear principal components analysis. In addition, the anthropometric indices checklist and Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) were filled out for toddlers. Then, construct validity was assessed. The Varimax rotation ran for two sections separately. The four-factor structure was confirmed.

Results

The model showed a good fit, and all the extracted variance of four factors were satisfactory (F1 = 20.77; F2 = 22.30; F3 = 14.75; and F4 = 13.71). All of the extracted items of the NutriCHEQ in two parts showed 71.53% cumulative variance. For criterion-related validity, there was a statistically significant positive correlation between the NutriCHEQ and Z-score (rho = 0.632, P < 0.001). The Bland-Altman result indicates 95% limits of agreement between the NutriCHEQ questionnaire and Z-score.

Conclusions

Therefore, we concluded that NutriCHEQ is a valid, reliable, and convenient instrument to identify the Iranian toddlers' nutritional status. Therefore, it can be used for research and clinical settings.