Eating disturbances in a school population of preteen girls: assessment and screening.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the utility of the Children's Eating Attitudes Test (cEAT) questionnaire in screening for interview-ascertained eating disturbances.


METHODS
A total of 409 girls, 9-13 years of age, completed a cEDE interview and cEAT questionnaire.


RESULTS
14.7% of girls reported eating disturbances in the past month on the cEDE. Mean cEDE score was 0.3 +/- 0.6 and mean cEAT score was 5.9 +/- 5.9. The cEAT demonstrated low sensitivity but high specificity at a cutoff score of 20, and poor positive predictive value when lower cutoff scores were used.


CONCLUSIONS
Eating disturbances were common but mild in this preteen group. The cEAT was not an efficient screening tool for interview-ascertained mild eating disturbances in preteen girls.
Colton
Patricia A
PA
Behavioral Sciences and Health Research Division, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada. p.colton@utoronto.ca
Olmsted
Marion P
MP
Rodin
Gary M
GM
D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D009864:Ontario; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires