1749 – Psychometric Properties Of The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire In a Portuguese Sample Of Overweight Women

Abstract

Introduction

The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDEQ; Fairburn & Beglin, 1994) is a widely used measure composed of 28 items derived from the EDE Interview. The questionnaire has been considered an adequate measure of eating related psychopathology, including with overweight samples. EDEQ also assesses frequencies of eating disordered behaviors in terms of the number of episodes in the past four weeks (6 items not contributing to scores).

Objectives

To investigate reliability and factorial structure of the EDEQ in a large sample of Portuguese overweight women.

Methods

The EDEQ was administered to an outpatient sample of 276 women (Mean age = 43.85 ± 11.89; Mean BMI = 32.82 Kg/m² ± 5.43) attending a weight loss treatment consultation in a public medical center.

Results

The EDEQ Cronbach a was .88. All items contributed to the internal consistency. A three factors structure (variance explained = 50.37%) was selected: Factor (F) 1 “Weight and shape concern/dissatisfaction” (a = .91); F2 “Eating concern” (a = .71) and F3 “Restraint” (a = .63). The mean total score was 2.36 (± 1.07). The regular occurrence of overeating episodes, selfinduced vomiting, laxative misuse and excessive exercise was reported by 10%, 1.5%, 4.1%, and 8.9% of participants, respectively.

Conclusions

The EDEQ Portuguese version showed adequate psychometric properties in a sample of overweight women. Its factorial structure, mean scores and specific eating disorder behaviors frequencies are in accordance with other studies with obese participants. The EDEQ Portuguese version could be very useful to clinical and epidemiological purposes in a broad range of eating disturbances.