The aim of this study was to conduct content validation through expert judgement of an instrument which explores the nutritional knowledge, beliefs, and habits during pregnancy. This is a psychometric study in which 14 experts participated in the evaluation of each of the questionnaire items, which were divided into two blocks according to the characteristics of sufficiency, clarity, coherence, and relevance. Fleiss’ κ statistic was used to measure strength of agreement. A pre-test with 102 participants was conducted to measure the degree of understandability of the instrument. The strength of agreement obtained for each of the dimensions was almost perfect. For each pair of experts, strength of agreement ranged between substantial and almost perfect. Sufficiency was the characteristic of the questionnaire that obtained the highest values in the two blocks, and was also the most statistically significant (p < 0.001). Coherence was the most statistically significant characteristic in the first block (p = 0.030). Clarity was the most statistically significant characteristic in the second block (p = 0.037). The wording of five of the twenty original items was corrected. The new version of the instrument attained a high degree of understandability. The results suggest that the instrument is valid and may therefore be applied.

A certain link exists between the consumption of particular groups of food and well-being. In this study, we analyzed in depth the relationship between strict adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MD) and emotional well-being through a descriptive, exploratory, transversal, and correlational study of students from the Campus of Melilla, University of Granada, Spain. The sample consisted of 272 individuals. Adherence to the MD was measured with the PREvención con DIetaMEDiterránea (PREDIMED) questionnaire, emotional well-being (both positive and negative affection) with the Spanish version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), the state of perceived health with the Short Form-36 (SF36), and the degree of physical activity using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF). A strict adherence to the MD was found to be significantly related to positive emotional state (β = 0.018, p = 0.009). The perceived state of health (β = 0.192, p < 0.001), mental role (β = 0.346, p < 0.001), and physical activity (β = 0.155, p = 0.007) were found to be predictive factors of a positive emotional state. Conversely, the relationship between the adherence to the MD and a negative emotional state was not significant. Various components of the MD were found to be independently connected to well-being. The results suggest that adopting a nutritional pattern such as the MD is linked to an improvement in emotional well-being.

The aim of this study was to identify dietary patterns in pregnant women and to assess the relationships between sociodemographic, lifestyle-related, and pregnancy-related factors. This is a descriptive, correlational study involving 306 pregnant women in Melilla (Spain) in any trimester of pregnancy. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used. Dietary patterns were determined via exploratory factor analysis and ordinal logistic regression using the proportional odds model. Three dietary patterns were identified: Western, mixed, and prudent. Sociodemographic, lifestyle-related, and pregnancy-related factors influencing dietary quality were established. The Western dietary pattern was considered the least recommended despite being the most common among women who live in Melilla (p = 0.03), are Christian (p = 0.01), are primiparous women (p < 0.001), and are in their first or second trimester (p = 0.02). Unemployed pregnant women were also more likely to have a less healthy dietary pattern (β = −0.716; p = 0.040). The prudent dietary pattern, the healthiest of the three, was most commonly observed among Muslim women (p = 0.01), women with more than two children (p < 0.001), and women in the third trimester of pregnancy (p = 0.02). Pregnant women who engaged in no physical activity or a low level of physical activity displayed a mixed pattern (p < 0.001). This study provides evidence on the factors influencing dietary patterns during pregnancy and suggests that more specific nutrition programmes should be developed to improve the nutritional status of pregnant women.

The objective of this study was to describe the content validation, through expert judgment, of a questionnaire for determining the level of knowledge that school teachers have of diabetes in order to design relevant educational interventions to improve the health of school-aged children. This psychometric study involved 15 experts who assessed each of the items in the instrument. The results revealed that the strength of agreement shown by the questionnaire ranged from substantial to almost perfect in its four dimensions, with the characteristics of “sufficiency” and “relevance” having the highest scores (0.982 and 0.903, respectively) based on the judgments made by the participating experts. Regarding statistical significance, the characteristics “sufficiency”, with p < 0.001, and “relevance”, with p = 0.001, were particularly relevant. The overall degree of understandability for the new version of the instrument was high (91.54%). The psychometric results obtained from validation of the “grado de conocimientos sobre diabetes en docentes del ámbito escolar” (Spanish for “level of knowledge of diabetes in school teachers”)—GCDDaE questionnaire through expert judgment and the pre-test indicate that it is recommended for use as it is both relevant and quick and easy to administer.

The objective of this study was to assess Mediterranean diet (MD) scores (i.e., alignment with a MD pattern) among students and professors, in addition to assessing how adherence to the MD was associated with other lifestyle behaviors. A cross-sectional observational study was conducted with a sample of 127 university professors and 272 students of the Melilla Campus at the University of Granada (Spain). Students were more physically active than professors (mean difference = 1058 METs, p < 0.001) and reported lower negative affect (NA; mean difference = −1.70, p < 0.001) whereas professors reported nominally better perceived mental health. For the total sample, the physical health component (β = 0.03, p = 0.03) and physical activity (β = 0.0001, p = 0.01) were significantly associated with higher MD scores. Health behaviors, including MD scores and physical activity, were suboptimal among both students and professors. The results suggest that a dietary pattern reflective of the MD is positively associated with both physical and mental health outcomes among students and professors, though the direction of the associations remains to be clarified.

The objectives of this study are to identify eating patterns of university professors and to assess the relationships among sociodemographic factors in relation to lifestyle and physical activity. It is a cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational, and observational study with a representative sample of 127 educators, which covers almost the total population of university professors belonging to one of the campuses of the University of Granada (Spain). Two eating patterns were identified a posteriori through explanatory factor analysis: a Western pattern characterised by the consumption of dairy products, eggs, meat, sausages, refined oils, and butter, sugar, processed baked goods, and sugar-containing beverages and alcoholic drinks, and a Mediterranean pattern based on olive oil, fish, fruits, nuts, vegetables, pulses, cereals, and honey, which explain the 20.102 and 17.411 of variance, respectively. Significant differences are observed between the two genders with respect to anthropometric characteristics (weight and size, p < 0.001 in both cases) and to nutritional status (p = 0.011). Origin (p = 0.022) and level of physical activity (p = 0.010) were significantly related to adherence to a Western diet pattern. In the case of the Mediterranean diet pattern, significant differences are observed according to the professors’ type of bachelor’s degree (p = 0.37). This study provides evidence on factors having an impact on adherence to eating patterns of professors of the University of Granada, and it suggests that programmes addressed to such groups should be developed to promote health.