title: Discriminant validity of the Eating Attitudes Test according to American Psychiatric Association and World Health Organization criteria of eating disorders.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to assess the sensitivity, the specificity, and the positive predictive value of the Eating Attitudes Test in a sample of Spanish nonclinical 18-yr.-olds. 304 subjects answered the Eating Attitudes Test-40, 290 of whom were interviewed individually with the Spanish version of the Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry. Eating disorders were diagnosed using ICD-10 and DSM-III-R criteria. The prevalence of eating disorders was higher for ICD-10 (5.2%) than for DSM-III-R (2.6%) and only affected the rate of diagnosis in women. According to ICD-10 criteria, the cut-off of 25 was more sensitive (87.5%) than the cut-off of 30 (75%) and varied little in specificity (93.9% vs 97.1%). The positive predictive value of the Eating Attitudes Test cut-off of 30 for eating disorders (ICD-10) was 36%. Our results support the test as useful for identifying eating disturbances in 18-yr.-olds and suggest assessment of a cut-off lower than 30 may be appropriate in the general population if confirmed in further research with a representative sample of adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Rovira i Virgili University, Cta Valls s/n 43007 Tarragona, Spain. jcs@fcep.urv.es
authors.forename: Josepa
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Canals
authors.forename: Gentzane
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Carbajo
authors.forename: Joan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fernández-Ballart
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011570:Psychiatry; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012955:Societies, Medical; D013030:Spain; D014481:United States; D014944:World Health Organization