Internal consistency and validity of the BITE for the screening of bulimia nervosa in university students, Colombia.
OBJECTIVE
To establish the validity and internal consistency of the bulimic investigatory test, Edinburgh (BITE) in a non-clinical population of university students in Colombia.


METHODS
A validation study with a cross-sectional sampling was designed. Two-hundred and sixty-one students were evaluated independently and blindly with BITE and the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Kuder-Richardson's test, sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, likelihood values, Cohen kappa, area under the ROC curve for BITE's symptoms scale and Cronbach's alpha for severity scale were computed.


RESULTS
The Kuder-Richardson's test was 0.86, two factors were identified which explain the 22.68% and 7.12% of variance. Cronbach's alpha for severity scale was 0.52. Area under ROC curve was 0.9736. The best cutoff point was 11 with sensitivity of 94.59%, specificity of 91.52%, positive predictive value of 64.81%, negative predictive value of 99.03%; with a concordance of 0.7226.


CONCLUSIONS
The BITE's symptom scale is useful in identifying clinically binge-eaters in university students.
Rueda-Jaimes
G E
GE
Neuropsychiatry Research Group, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, UNAB, Bucaramanga, Colombia. gredu@unab.edu.co
Camacho López
P A
PA
Rangel-Martínez-Villalba
A M
AM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D003105:Colombia; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012372:ROC Curve; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data