Hungarian Adaptation and Validation of the Short Food Literacy Questionnaire (SFLQ-HU).

BACKGROUND

Food literacy (FL) plays a crucial role in promoting healthy eating and sustainable food choices. The Short Food Literacy Questionnaire (SFLQ) has been widely used to assess FL in different populations.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to adapt and validate the SFLQ in Hungarian (SFLQ-HU) and evaluate its psychometric properties among university students.

METHODS

The adaptation followed international guidelines, including forward- and back-translation, pre-testing, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, while criterion validity was tested through correlations with other health-related scales. For statistical analysis, IBM AMOS 26.0 and SPSS 28.0 software were used.

RESULTS

The survey involved 1325 ( = 1325) young adults in 2024. Overall, 76% of the sample were women ( = 1007), and 77.43% of the sample were under 25 years old ( = 1025). The FL level scored 36.47 points (SD: 7.53), with the highest score being 52 and the lowest score being 14.8. The SFLQ-HU demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.850) and a good fit for the one-factor structure in CFA. Test-retest reliability confirmed the stability of the instrument. Significant correlations were found between the SFLQ-HU and measures of health literacy (r = 0.197; < 0.001), food choice motivations (r = 0.394; < 0.001), and barriers to health behaviors (r = 0.353; < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

The SFLQ-HU is a reliable and valid tool for assessing food literacy of young Hungarian-speaking adults. It can facilitate future research and public health initiatives aimed at improving FL and promoting healthy dietary habits.