CONCEPTUALIZATION AND MEASUREMENT OF FOOD AND NUTRITION LITERACY AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF MEASUREMENT TOOLS

Abstract

Objective: Food literacy (FL) and nutrition literacy (NL) are both essential constructs in making informed dietary choices and navigating in complex food environments. Building these literacies among university students is crucial as they are in the pivotal stage of life when they have increasing autonomy over their food choices. The objectives of this systematic review were to (i) identify existing tools that measure FL and NL among university students and (ii) evaluate their psychometric properties using the COSMIN framework. Design: A systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Sixteen studies were included based on eligibility criteria related to scale development and psychometric validation in university student populations and excluding studies that focus solely on dietary outcomes without discussing the underlying conceptualization or measurement of FL or NL. General and psychometric characteristics of tools were extracted and synthesized narratively. The COSMIN risk-of-bias checklist was applied to assess the psychometric rigor of the tools. Setting: Five academic databases were systematically searched in February 2025. Participants: All included studies involved university students, typically aged 18–25 years, from diverse geographical regions, including Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Results: Sixteen tools were identified, where 8 of them focused on NL, 6 on FL, 1 measured a critical component of NL, and 1 covered both. The reviewed tools differed substantially in terms of conceptual frameworks, item development methods, and psychometric properties. Most tools reported strong content, structural validities, and internal consistency; fewer studies assessed reliability, criterion validity, and hypothesis testing validity, and no tools evaluated cross-cultural validity and responsiveness. Conclusion: The systematic review demonstrates that recent FL and NL tools for university students have shifted to more contextually driven domains, such as critical thinking, sustainability, and digital literacy. While a majority of tools exhibit acceptable to strong psychometric properties, gaps remain in the current theoretical and practical landscape of measurement tools being fragmented with inconsistent conceptual coverage of FL and NL and cross-cultural validation, indicating the need for further development of both conceptually and contextually appropriate tools.