Adaptation and evaluation of the Clinical Impairment Assessment to assess disordered eating related distress in an adolescent female ethnic Fijian population.
OBJECTIVE
Measurement of disease-related impairment and distress is central to diagnostic, therapeutic, and health policy considerations for eating disorders across diverse populations. This study evaluates psychometric properties of a translated and adapted version of the Clinical Impairment Assessment (CIA) in an ethnic Fijian population.


METHODS
The adapted CIA was administered to ethnic Fijian adolescent schoolgirls (N = 215). We calculated Cronbach's alpha to assess the internal consistency, examined the association between indicators of eating disorder symptom severity and the CIA to assess construct and criterion validity, and compared the strength of relation between the CIA and measures of disordered eating versus with measures of generalized distress.


RESULTS
The Fijian version of the CIA is feasible to administer as an investigator-based interview. It has excellent internal consistency (alpha = 0.93). Both construct and criterion validity were supported by the data, and regression models indicated that the CIA predicts eating disorder severity, even when controlling for generalized distress and psychopathology.


CONCLUSIONS
The adapted CIA has excellent psychometric properties in this Fijian study population. Findings suggest that the CIA can be successfully adapted for use in a non-Western study population and that at least some associated distress and impairment transcends cultural differences.
Becker
Anne E
AE
Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. anne_becker@hms.harvard.edu
Thomas
Jennifer J
JJ
Bainivualiku
Asenaca
A
Richards
Lauren
L
Navara
Kesaia
K
Roberts
Andrea L
AL
Gilman
Stephen E
SE
Striegel-Moore
Ruth H
RH
D000293:Adolescent; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005367:Fiji; D006801:Humans; D011594:Psychometrics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000706:statistics & numerical data