Risk test for eating disorders: factor analytic study

Objective: Eating disorders (ED) are disabling, unpredictable, and difficult to treat. The high percentage of false negatives at screening test indicates that up to now the prevalence of ED in adolescents could have been underestimated. The aim of the study was to evaluate the Factor structure of "Risk Test" (RT), a 16-item questionnaire recommended by Italian Government for screening young people to assess the risk for ED by studying their behaviour style and emotional/ affective involvement related to eating attitudes and the need to apply the RT in a non clinical context. Method: 422 students, between 16 and 32 years, were assessed using RT. All participants spoke Italian as their mothertongue or were fluent in Italian. Results: An exploratory Factor Analysis was used in order to generate hypotheses about underlying processes measured by the instrument. A five factor solution was generated by the analysis, accounting for 69.7% of the total variance. Conclusions: The RT was well accepted by the patients and needed very little supervision by the interviewer. Our data suggests the importance of the dimensions evaluation of RT ("Fear-emotional- impulsive factor", "Behavioural factor", "Physical and mood disruption", "Safe" and "Unsafe attitude"). The factor structure of the RT is consistent with the underlining cognitive structure of disturbed eating behaviour which is able to be treated with a preventive, cognitively oriented psychological approach. Key Words: Risk Test, eating disorders, psychometric properties, factor analysis, cognitive approach