To develop a scale to assess health motivation influencing food choices and to explore its performance in the associations with food intakes and nutritional biomarkers.

Psychometric study using cross-sectional self-report questionnaires and nutritional biomarkers.

Multi-centre investigation conducted in ten European cities.

2954 adolescents who were included in the HELENA study and completed the Food Choices and Preferences (FCP) questionnaire.

Nineteen out of 124 items of the FCP questionnaire were in the same dimension. Sixteen presented adequate parameters for the Scale of evaluatiOn of Food choIcEs (SOFIE). The scores were positively associated with the intakes of cereals, dairy products, meats and eggs, and fish, as well as with blood concentrations of vitamin C, β-carotene, n-3 fatty acids, cobalamin, holo-transcobalamin and folate; scores were negatively associated with the intake of alcohol.

SOFIE can improve the assessment of motivation influencing food choices based on items with the best performance and is proposed as a new measure to health-related studies.

To analyse the Nutritional Knowledge Test (NKT) using Item Response Theory (ITR) analysis and to assess the construct validity of the Nutritional Knowledge Scale (NKTS) and its associations with adolescent food group consumption and nutritional biomarkers.

Cross-sectional study.

Multicentre investigation conducted in ten European cities.

Adolescents aged 12·5–17·5 years (n 3215) who completed over 75 % of the NKT.

Factor analysis indicated that the NKT can be analysed with a one-dimensional model. Eleven out of twenty-three items from the NKT presented adequate parameters and were selected to be included in the NKTS. Nutrition knowledge was positively associated with consumption of fruits, cereals, dairy products, pulses, meat and eggs, and fish, as well as with blood concentrations of vitamin C, β-carotene, n-3 fatty acids, holo-transcobalamin, cobalamin and folate; nutrition knowledge was negatively associated with intake of olives and avocado, alcohol and savoury snacks.

The NKTS assessed nutritional knowledge adequately and it is proposed as a new tool to investigate this subject in future studies.

To describe changes in total and central adiposity and body fat distribution in children over a 5-year period by investigating variations in BMI, waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and skinfold thicknesses (SFT).

A school-based sample of children from 2nd to 5th grades of elementary schools participated in two cross-sectional studies in 2002 (n 2936) and 2007 (n 1232).

Public and private schools of Florianopolis, Brazil.

Schoolchildren aged 7–10 years had their weight, height, WC and SFT measured according to standard procedures. Body fat distribution was assessed by triceps, subscapular, suprailiac and medial calf skinfold measurements. Changes in BMI, WC, WHtR and SFT were analysed, adjusting for type of school and monthly family income.

Adjusted mean differences between 2002 and 2007 for BMI and WC were always positive and of similar magnitude between boys and girls. However, a statistically significant increase was observed only for BMI (raw and Z-score values) in boys. WHtR remained stable in both sexes. Adjusted median values for SFT also increased in boys and girls, except for triceps skinfold. BMI, WC and SFT tended to increase across age classes in both sexes. The relative change observed for the median central skinfolds (subscapular and suprailiac) was greater than that of peripheral skinfolds (triceps and medial calf).

The subcutaneous adipose tissue (SFT) appeared to increase at a faster rate than total adiposity (BMI). The increase in central SFT indicates that the relative change is due primarily to a rise in central adiposity.