title: Psychometric properties of the Italian Yale Food Addiction Scale in overweight and obese patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the dimensionality and psychometric properties of an Italian version of the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) in a sample of obese/overweight patients attending low-energy diet therapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 300 overweight and obese patients who were admitted to a private medical center in Rome, Italy. Controls were 300 (231 women and 69 men) adults from the general population. All of the participants were administered the YFAS and the binge eating scale (BES).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The one-factor model of the YFAS reported in previous studies did not fit the data χ(2)(209) = 466.69, p < 0.001, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.07; 90% CI: 0.06/0.08; comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.91; weighted root mean square residual (WRMR) = 1.40]. Through item analysis, it was suggested that five items (items #10, #11, #22, #24, and #25) with low item-total correlations should be removed from the measure. A 16-item one-factor model revealed a better fit to the data (χ(2)(104) = 174.56; p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.05; 90% CI: 0.04/0.07; CFI = 0.96), although the WRMR was slightly higher than that suggested as an indicator of good fit (WRMR = 1.01). The YFAS-16 had satisfactory internal consistency; it was able to discriminate obese patients from controls and strongly correlated with BES scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The YFAS-16 assesses all of the "symptoms" represented in the original version and has satisfactory psychometric properties, although the percentage of food addiction diagnoses according to the YFAS-16 is lower than the percentage of diagnoses according to the original version of the questionnaire.
authors: Università Europea di Roma, via degli Aldobrandeschi 190, 00163, Rome, Italy, innamorati.marco@libero.it.
authors: Marco
authors: M
authors: Innamorati
authors: Claudio
authors: C
authors: Imperatori
authors: Gian Mauro
authors: GM
authors: Manzoni
authors: Dorian A
authors: DA
authors: Lamis
authors: Gianluca
authors: G
authors: Castelnuovo
authors: Antonino
authors: A
authors: Tamburello
authors: Stella
authors: S
authors: Tamburello
authors: Mariantonietta
authors: M
authors: Fabbricatore
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000523:psychology*; D050177:Overweight / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult