Development of the "impact of food inflation on nutritional behavior" scale: validity and reliability study

Food inflation, affects the health, nutritional habits and quality of life of the individual and the society. This research was conducted to develop the scale of the impact of food inflation on nutrition behavior. The research was conducted at the faculties and colleges of Ankara University with adult individuals aged 19-64 who voluntarily agreed to participate in the study and shop for food. The scope of the research, firstly, an item pool was created as a result of literature review, and then the items were evaluated with content validity rates in accordance with the Lawshe method, after completing the expert opinion. Validity and reliability analyzes of the scale items were determined by exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency coefficient. The resulting scale consists of a total of 36 items and as a result of the analysis, it is divided into four different sub-dimensions (food consumption, food insecurity, panic buying, budget). In addition, food consumption was recorded and diet quality index was calculated using the 24-hour recall method. 61,1% (n=168) of the individuals participating in the study were women, 38,9% (n=107) were men, and the average age of women was 32,9±8,26 years. When purchasing food, men pay more attention to the price of food compared to women (p = 0.017), 69.8% of individuals say that food inflation has changed their eating habits, 49.5% of these individuals started to prefer more affordable foods, 22.4% of them stated that they reduced food variety, and 13.0% stated that they reduced the amount of food. With the Sankey diagram, it was determined that the nutritional habits of individuals at low income levels are more affected by food inflation. The KMO (Kaiser Meyer Olkin) value of the scale was determined to be 0,960. Since p<0,001 according to Bartlett's Sphericity test, these results show that the sample size is sufficient and the data is suitable for factor analysis. According to the explained variance results of the scale, it was determined that the 4 dimensions of the scale explained 69,8% of the total variance. Factor loadings of the scale vary between 0,407-0,917. According to the confirmatory factor analysis results of the scale, the good fit values of the single factor model consisting of 36 items are χ2 =2083.903, df = 458, χ2/ df =4,55, TLI (Tucker Lewis Index)=0,81, CFI (Comparative Fit Index)=0,82, IFI (Incremental Fit Index)=0,82 was obtained as SRMR (Standardized Root Mean Square Residual)=0,06. Item factor loadings were greater than 0,30 and had values between 0,349 and 0,965. Item t values ranged between 4,599 and 16,791 (p<0,001; t>1,96). The corrected item-total correlation coefficients of the scale vary between 0,452-0,77. The Cronbach alpha coefficient of the entire scale was determined to be 0,974, and the scale was found to be highly reliable. In the hierarchical regression analysis, it was determined that food insecurity had a strong and significant effect on the food consumption dimension (t=12,565, p<0,001). This shows that food insecurity has a significant and positive effect on the dependent variable. It was determined that the budget variable had a similarly strong and significant effect (t=9,795, p<0,001). In particular, the beta coefficient of the food insecurity dimension was found to be (0,552) and the beta coefficient of the budget was (0,397), 63,8% increase in the ΔR² value was determined. However, as the effect of food inflation on nutrition behavior increases, the quality of the diet is negatively affected (r = -0.024, p = 0.701).As a result, a valid and reliable measurement tool that determines the effect of food inflation on nutritional behavior has been obtained. It is important to apply the scale of the impact of food inflation on nutritional behavior, especially to low-income and vulnerable groups, and to take necessary precautions by evaluating the results.