Development and validation of sport nutrition knowledge test for pre-service dieticians

BACKGROUND: Measuring pre-service dieticians’ sport nutrition knowledge levels seems important in order to determine their real educational needs, monitor the improvements and make required adjustments to the educational process. However, there is no valid and reliable sport nutrition knowledge test for pre-service dieticians. This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable sport nutrition knowledge test (SNK) for Turkish pre-service dieticians. METHODS: Participants were 201 pre-service dieticians who had successfully completed sport nutrition course at their departments previously. Rasch modeling was utilized to evaluate the validity and reliability of the sport nutrition knowledge test. Indices of item fit, person fit, person item/wright maps, separation index and separation-reliability index were checked to confirm test’ validity and reliability. RESULTS: Results showed that item difficulty and item discrimination of the SNK test met the required standards for educational assessment. According to fit statistics, all items were within acceptable MNSQ (0.5 to 1.5) and ZSTD (+ 2.0 to -2.0) ranges, except four items (items 1, 13, 16 and 26). Moreover, high item and person reliability indices and excellent level of item and person separation indices were determined. CONCLUSIONS: SNK test for pre-service dieticians has been developed and validated using multiple relevant methods. The test can be used to assess the SNK levels of pre-service dieticians and advocate for the importance of adding and/or increasing a specific sport nutrition education for whom working with athletic population.