Psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Media Literacy Scale for university students

It is very important to determine the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages that cause diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease in late adolescence. This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Media Literacy Scale aimed at university students. This methodological-descriptive-correlational study was conducted with 884 university students between September 2018 and December 2018. The data were collected using a socio-demographic data collection form and the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Media Literacy Scale. Factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, and item-total correlation were used to evaluate the data. It was determined that the scale consists of 19 items and three sub-dimensions; the three sub-dimensions explained 49.9% of the total variance. In both the explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses, all the factor loads were found to be >0.30. In confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that all of the fit indices were > 0.85 and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was <0.080. Cronbach’s alpha was found to be 0.86 for the entire scale; the Cronbach’s alpha values for all three sub-dimensions were found to range between 0.65 and 0.84. In this study, the Turkish version of the Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Media Literacy Scale aimed at university students was found to be a valid and reliable measurement tool for the Turkish sample.