Development and validation of a nutrition education module for shift workers

Shift work often affects people’s health, especially regarding eating habits and sleep quality. Many shift workers struggle with irregular mealtimes, poor dietary habits, and low energy during working hours. Although many nutrition guidelines are widely available, most of them do not consider the unique challenges faced by this population. To help address this gap, this study focused on developing a nutrition education module explicitly tailored for shift workers in Malaysia, which experts will then validate. The module, titled “Nutrition Guide for Shift Workers: Eat Well to Sleep Well”, was designed using evidence from a systematic literature review and based on local dietary guidelines. It includes practical advice and meal ideas that Malaysians typically prefer, with simple visuals to help users make better food choices based on their work schedules. Five dietetics experts were invited to review the content using content and face validity tools to evaluate the quality of the module. The results showed strong agreement on the relevance of the content with the S-CVI score of 0.867, but some aspects of the face validity were rated lower; hence, the S-FVI score was 0.65. The low score of S-FVI suggests that the module could still be improved for better readability and accessibility. One limitation of the study is that future work will be needed to refine and implement it more widely. Overall, this study offers a valuable foundation for creating practical nutrition resources that better support the health of shift workers.