Health Status Assessment Tool Development based on Dietary Patterns in Middle-Aged Women / 대한지역사회영양학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: This study was performed to develop an assessment tool for middle aged women's health status based on dietary patterns, which will have practical applications in the working field of health and hygiene, aiming at improving the middle aged women's quality of life through their health improvement. METHODS: As a first step, a literature review was conducted and the original data of '2008~2009 Korea Health and Nutrition Examination Survey' were reanalyzed. This analysis identified 65 preliminary questions that may be relevant to the study. After verifying the content validity by experts, the 65 questions were reduced into 51 questions. In order to secure higher validity of the candidate items, verification of their clinical validity was conducted among women aged between 45 and 60 years. Finally, an assessment tool was developed by applying weight and scoring. RESULTS: Selected 51 questions were used to verify clinical validity and the results showed that 20 questions were relevant, nine questions ('regular meal time', 'regular amount of meal', 'intake frequency of dairy products', 'intake frequency of fruits', 'intake frequency of meat products', 'intake frequency of high cholesterol foods', 'intake frequency of salty foods', 'appetite', 'eat breakfast everyday') were related to dietary life. Eleven other questions ('self-rated health status', 'deep sleep', 'smoking', 'frequency of drinking', 'stress levels', 'health-related fitness levels', 'pounding of the heart', 'strange feelings on the skin', 'interfere with daily life', 'menopause will bring you a chance to see the life in a different perspective', and 'body mass index') were selected as valid questions. For the response scale for each question, 5 point Likert scale was used to make total 100 point score. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first attempt to develop a health status assessment tool for middle aged women based on their dietary patterns. We conclude that this tool is expected to be a useful and practical tool in the field.