title: Children's Eating Attitudes Test: Reliability and validation in Japanese adolescents.
abstract: Eating disorders (ED) are serious psychosomatic disorders that commonly occur in girls during adolescence. An increase in earlier onset ED has recently been suggested. Therefore, accurate assessment of eating attitudes in children is a necessary part of school mental health. The 26-item Children's Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT-26) is widely used internationally to assess abnormal eating attitudes. The present study aimed to validate the Japanese version of the ChEAT-26. Participants were 7076 school children (aged 10-15years) from large, medium-sized, and small cities, and 44 children with anorexia nervosa. We examined the average ChEAT-26 score by participant attributes, including sex, age, geographical region, and school style. Factor analysis of the ChEAT-26 content was performed with varimax rotation. The optimal cut-off point was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The mean ChEAT-26 score was 7.94 for girls and 5.86 for boys. The mean score was significantly higher in children from larger cities than small cities, and was higher with increasing age, and private schools. Five factors explained 31.4% of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.81 for the scale. The area under the ROC curve was 0.83; sensitivity was 0.69 and specificity was 0.93 for a cut-off score of 18. The Japanese version of the ChEAT-26 is a reliable and valid psychometric tool that may be useful in the triage and assessment of children with anorexia nervosa.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Kurume University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan; Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kurume University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chiba
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Kurume University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan. Electronic address: kaoru@med.kurume-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Shinichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagamitsu
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics Center, Kurume University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Rieko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Takayo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mukai
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Seinan Gakuin, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Shintou
authors.affiliation: Nagasaki Prefectural Center of Medicine and Welfare for Children, Nagasaki, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koyanagi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Kurume University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Yushiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.affiliation: Biostatistics Center, Kurume University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Tatsuyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kakuma
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kurume University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Naohisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uchimura
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Kurume University School of Medicine, Fukuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: Toyojiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuishi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D004435:Eating / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014177:Translations
keywords: Anorexia nervosa; ChEAT; Children; Children's Eating Attitudes Test; Eating disorders