Reliability and Validity of HeartSmartKids: A Survey of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Children.

Introduction: Reliable and valid instruments to measure counseling effectiveness related to eating, activity, and inactivity are lacking. HeartSmartKids (HSK; HeartSmartKids, LLC, Boulder, Colorado) is a bilingual decision-support technology that can be used to assess and counsel families on cardiovascular risk factors in children. The purpose of this study was to establish preliminary test-retest reliability and convergent validity of HSK questions relative to a previously validated questionnaire, HABITS.
Method: Data were collected from children (ages 9-14 years) during an intervention study. A multitrait/multimethod correlation matrix framework was used to examine the test-retest reliability (n = 35) and convergent validity (n = 103) of HSK relative to HABITS.
Results: HSK had moderate/strong test-retest reliability and good convergent validity between HSK and HABITS.
Discussion: This study provides preliminary test-retest reliability and convergent validity of a useful clinical tool that can be used to quickly assess children's nutrition (e.g., fruit/vegetable consumption, snacks, sugar-sweetened beverages, breakfast) and activity habits to guide behavior change counseling. Additional work should be done validating HSK with objective measures.
(Copyright © 2018 National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)