Development and Evaluation of the Infant Feeding Education Questionnaire for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program

Objective: Develop and evaluate the Infant Feeding Education Questionnaire (IFEQ) to measure the impact of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) infant-feeding education on knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intent. Methods: Evaluation included content validity testing through expert reviews and cognitive interviews with low-income mothers (n = 37); construct validity using the known-groups technique (n = 679); convergent validity testing using the Infant Feeding Practices Study II questionnaire (n = 66); and test-retest reliability (n = 66). Results: The IFEQ had strong construct validity for knowledge and attitudes; IFEQ scores were significantly higher for the high-knowledge/attitude group (29.6 +/- 3.08) than the low-knowledge/attitude group (14.5 +/- 5.81; P < .001). The IFEQ failed to show convergent validity. The percent agreement between baseline and retest questions was moderate to high, indicating reliability over time. Conclusions and Implications: This study represents the first steps in the development of the IFEQ. There's a need to perform further testing to establish convergent validity and pilot-test the questions following EFNEP infant-feeding education.