Enhancing nutrition education resources through the development and refinement of a checklist using the suitability assessment of materials (SAM)

TL;DR

This study created and refined a checklist to improve nutrition education resources, showing that it significantly enhanced their quality as assessed by dietitians.

Contribution

The novel contribution is the development and iterative refinement of a SAM-based checklist to improve nutrition education materials.

Findings

SAM scores for the resources significantly improved after three rounds of refinement using the checklist.

The checklist was refined to include clearer instructions and examples to guide changes in the resources.

Participation in the study decreased across the three survey rounds.

Abstract

Evidence-based nutrition education resources are one way to help registered dietitians (RDs) translate scientific knowledge to consumers.

To develop a checklist based on suitability assessment of materials (SAM) and to assess its use to refine nutrition education resources.

RDs were recruited online to assess two nutrition education resources using SAM. Three rounds of surveying and two rounds of resource refinements occurred. A “checklist” was created to refine the resources between rounds. Descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests were performed to explore differences in SAM-scores between rounds.

RDs participated in the first (n = 45), second (n = 37), and third (n = 27) surveys. SAM-scores significantly improved in both resources by the third round. The refined checklist included more explicit instructions and provided examples to help guide resource changes.

Using the checklist improved SAM scores. Future work should include end-users to help with checklist validation.

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