Screening for eating disorders in adolescents

Forfatter
Camilla Lindvall Dahlgren

Medforfatter
Lasse Bang & Ellie Bastos Degobi

Tidskrift
Journal of Eating Disorders

Tittel på publikasjonen
Screening for eating disorders in adolescents:psychometric evaluation of the eatingdisorder examination questionnaire shortversion (EDE-QS) in a community sample

Method
Clinical interview and self-report data were collected as part of a broader epidemiological study conductedacross six upper secondary schools in Norway. The sample included 1,430 adolescents (744 females, 686 males)aged 16–19 years (M = 17.03, SD = 0.90). 

Data were collected between November 2020 and May 2021. Psychometricevaluation included confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), assessment of convergent validity, and receiver operatingcharacteristic (ROC) analysis to determine the optimal clinical cut-off score in females.

Results 
The EDE-QS demonstrated good structural validity and excellent internal consistency. Findings also supported its convergent and criterion validity. The measure appears particularly suitable for epidemiological andclinical research contexts, where brief yet valid screening tools are essential. ROC analysis using the Youden criterionidentified a cut-off score of 20 as providing the optimal balance of sensitivity (0.64) and specificity (0.81). This cut-offwas derived from female participants only.

Conclusions 
The EDE-QS combines robust psychometric properties with brevity, making it especially appropriate foruse in large-scale epidemiological and clinical studies, where minimizing participant burden is critical. A limitation ofthe current study is that the clinical cut-off was established based solely on diagnostic data from female participants.Further validation is needed to assess the utility of the EDE-QS as a screening tool in male and gender-diverseadolescents.Clinical trial number Not applicable.Keywords Eating disorders, Diagnosis, Screening, Adolescents, EDE-QS, Psychometrics

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