Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire with and without instruction to assess binge eating in patients with binge eating disorder.
OBJECTIVE
The current study examined whether adding written definitions and examples of binge eating to the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire enhances its utility to assess binge frequency in patients with binge eating disorder (BED).


METHODS
Eighty-nine women and men with BED completed the EDE-Q (without instruction; n = 37) or the EDE-Q-I (with instruction; n = 52) before receiving the EDE interview. Binge frequency was measured as the number of binge days (days on which one or more objective binge episodes occurred) over the past 28 days.


RESULTS
Binge frequency correlations between the EDE and EDE-Q-I were strongly significant (r = .543, p = .000), whereas correlations between the EDE and EDE-Q were not significant (r = .197, p = .242).


CONCLUSIONS
Providing brief detailed instructions improves the performance of the EDE-Q when evaluating binge eating in patients with BED. This suggests that, with relatively minor modifications, the EDE-Q may be a viable alternative to the EDE in assessing binge frequency in this population.
Goldfein
Juli A
JA
Eating Disorders Research Unit, NY State Psychiatric Institute--Unit 116, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, USA. jag73@columbia.edu
Devlin
Michael J
MJ
Kamenetz
Claudia
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002032:Bulimia / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching