Turkish adaptation, validation, and reliability of the US Adult Food Security Survey Module (AFSSM) in university students

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the US Adult Food Security Survey Module (AFSSM). Design: A cross-sectional study collected data from 117 university students. The AFSSM Questionnaire was completed by all participants. Psychometric evaluation for scale, content, construct, and convergent validity and reliability of the scale was tested. The construct validity was assessed by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on data collected from university students. Cronbach’s α (internal consistency) and composite reliability were used to assess the reliability (p<0.05). Setting: Students were recruited from the university. Participants: This research was conducted with volunteer university students with a mean age of 22.74 ± 4.19 years. Results: Three factors were extracted from 8 items through EFA: (1) inadequate nutrition, (2) economic concern, and (3) hunger. These factors accounted for 77.4% of the total variance, and factor loadings ranged from 0.755 to 0.953. Cronbach’s α was 0.769. The results of the CFA suggested the fit indices were acceptable (χ2/SD = 0.235, root mean error of approximation: 0.034, goodness-of-fit index: 0.994, comparative fit index: 0.992, and normed fit index: 0.986). Conclusions: This is the first study that validates and reports the Turkish version of AFSSM in university students and the results of our study show that the Turkish AFSSM is a valid and reliable tool for determining food security in university students. AFSSM can be used by researchers to examine the food security of university students.