81 and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was X2 = (66) = 458.64 (p < 0.001). Factor analysis with varimax rotation showed that the factors consisted of five items each, in the first dimension, and seven items in the second dimension. In the scree plot analysis, it was observed that the tool could be divided into two or three dimensions. Considering the factor analysis, the final form consisted of two dimensions, with dimension 1 as “healthy habits” and dimension 2 as “risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Table 1 shows the

this website load values for different items of the questionnaire. Questions 2 (Do you think that food influences cardiac health?) and 14 (What should be the healthiest way for you to go to school?) were removed from the instrument due to loads < 0.3. During the questionnaire, it was observed that students had difficulty understanding these two questions, which also had the greatest number of blank answers. Thus, the final model had 12 questions. In the analysis of each factor, Cronbach's Selleck PCI32765 alpha values remained between 0.93 and 0.91. The total variance remained at 46.87. Regarding the reliability

of the tool at the test and re-test, an ICC = 0.87 was found, with α = 0.93 for Factor 1, and ICC = 0.83 with α = 0.91 for Factor 2. Table 2 shows the means of correct answers at test and re-test. There was no significant difference between the means of the two tests in any of the dimensions (p = 0.292 for the overall questionnaire, p = 0.123 for dimension 1, and p = 1.0 for dimension 2). This validation study demonstrated that the CARDIOKID questionnaire had good internal consistency and reproducibility. There have been several studies in the literature related to dietary habits of children and adolescents, but very few regarding the knowledge on risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, including nutritional knowledge and knowledge of healthy activities in everyday life. One of the main difficulties of performing research in this area is the lack of validated about tools to measure this knowledge

in the Portuguese language that are culturally adapted to Brazil. In other countries, there have been some studies related to the assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors for cardiovascular disease prevention, such as the Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) program linked to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States.9, 18, 19 and 20 The main strategy of that study was the use of school-based interventions aimed at increasing the participants’ knowledge. Since 1990, this program has been researching what knowledge the students have about nutrition and healthy habits, with good results related to changes in habits and attitudes, and later in weight control of the children participating in the study. In a Brazilian study, there was an association between dietary habits, knowledge and childhood obesity.