Turkish Adaptation of Sustainable and Healthy Eating Behavior Scale: A Validity and Reliability Study on Young Adults

Abstract

Objective: Increasing nutrition needs and overcon sumption of animal-based products have led to an environmental bur den threatening ecological balance, also chronic diseases, and increasing medical expenditures. Eco-friendly and sustainable diets re quire understanding consumers’ attitudes towards health, nutrition, and the environment for their implementation. In this study, the aim is to adapt the Sustainable and Healthy Eating Behavior Scale to Turkish for young adults. Material and Methods: A reliability and validity study was conducted on students from three universities. A total of 847 vol untary participants, who met the research criteria and successfully re sponded to the qualifying question, were randomly selected. The dataset was randomly divided into 2 groups - training (n=347) set for reliabil ity and validity tests, verification (n=500) set for verifying the validity of the model. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor anal ysis (CFA) was conducted for validity and Cronbach’s alfa value was taken into account for determining the reliability of the scale. Factor loadings of 0.500 or more for items, were accepted as reliable and valid for the adapted scale. The level of significance was taken as p<0.05. Results: Adapted scale had 7 factors with 22 items. Cronbach alfa value was 0.898 for the total scale score. Standardized estimates obtained by CFA were statistically significant in both training and verification sets, thus verifying the construct validity (p<0.001). Conclusion: The adapted scale was found to be a valid and reliable tool to measure Sus tainable and Healthy Eating Behaviors in Turkish young adults.