Eating Disorder Examination – Questionnaire short forms: A comparison

Objective The Eating Disorder Examination – Questionnaire (EDE‐Q) is a widely used self‐report measure of eating‐disordered behaviors and attitudes. Recent studies utilizing confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) have proposed alternative and shorter forms. The aim of this study was to compare the full‐length version of the EDE‐Q and several proposed short forms (7‐item, 8‐item, and 18‐item) in terms of their psychometric properties, including concurrent, convergent and discriminant validity, factor structure, and sensitivity to change. Methods Participants from two eating‐disorder clinical samples (N = 175 and 38) and from a nonclinical sample (N = 3,413) completed a battery of measures, including the Portuguese version of the EDE‐Q. Analyses compared psychometric properties of the available short forms of the EDE‐Q among each other. Results All forms of the EDE‐Q showed good internal consistency values, correlated highly among each other (r > .90) and with different measures of eating psychopathology (r > .80). All EDE‐Q forms were able to distinguish between cases and controls with moderate‐to‐high accuracy and were sensitive to change. CFA failed to support the proposed factor structure for all the EDE‐Q forms, except for the 7‐item form. Discussion The present study provides empirical background for choosing between different forms of the EDE‐Q. Findings indicate that for nonclinical and for clinical research, including studies of treatment change and outcome, the short forms of the EDE‐Q can be used. A shorter version is a viable alternative when less time‐consuming alternatives are needed, such to quickly screen for eating‐disorder psychopathology or to perform session‐by‐session treatment monitoring.