Psychometric properties of the Eating Disorders in Obesity questionnaire: Validating against the Eating Disorder Examination interview

Inconclusive results of how weight-loss treatment (WLT) results are affected by participants’ eating disorders and/or binge eating are partly due to the variation caused by the multitude of assessment instruments used. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a short DSM-IV-based assessment instrument designed to be used specifically in WLT settings, the Eating Disorders in Obesity (EDO) questionnaire. Participants were 97 patients seeking WLT at four surgical and one non-surgical clinics. Participants were assessed by the EDO and the Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) interview. The validity and reliability of the EDO was measured as concordance with the EDE, and test-retest agreement of the EDO, respectively. Validity as well as reliability was found to be good for both eating disorders diagnoses and binge eating as a distinct symptom. Results suggest that the EDO is a short, easily administered instrument with good psychometric properties which makes it a suitable, economical method of assessing eating disorders and binge eating in clinical WLT settings.