Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress 2023 EHA Congress 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

A round-up of the ONWARDS phase 3 clinical trials evaluating the novel weekly insulin icodec in people with diabetes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
BMC Psychiatry
Published in: BMC Psychiatry 1/2017

Open Access 01-12-2017 | Research article

Confirmatory factor analysis and examination of the psychometric properties of the eating beliefs questionnaire

Authors: Amy L. Burton, Phillipa Hay, Sabina Kleitman, Evelyn Smith, Jayanthi Raman, Jessica Swinbourne, Stephen W. Touyz, Maree J. Abbott

Published in: BMC Psychiatry | Issue 1/2017

Login to get access

Abstract

Background

The Eating Beliefs Questionnaire (EBQ) is a 27-item self-report measure that assesses positive and negative beliefs about binge eating. It has been validated and its factor structure explored in a non-clinical sample. This study tested the psychometric properties of the EBQ in a clinical and a non-clinical sample.

Method

A sample of 769 participants (573 participants recruited from the university and general community, 76 seeking treatment for an eating disorder and 120 participating in obesity research) completed a battery of questionnaires. A subset of clinical participants with a diagnosis of Bulimia Nervosa or Binge Eating Disorder completed the test-battery before and after receiving a psychological treatment (n = 27) or after allocation to a wait-list period (n = 28), and a subset of 35 community participants completed the test battery again after an interval of two-weeks. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed.

Results

CFA found a two-factor structure that provided a good fit to the data, supporting the solution presented in the development paper. Items with poor psychometric properties were removed, resulting in a 16 item measure. EBQ scores were found to correlate with binge eating episode frequency, increases in body mass index (BMI), and measures of eating disorder behaviours and related psychopathology. The EBQ was found to have excellent internal consistency (α = .94), good test-retest reliability (r = .91) and sensitivity to treatment.

Conclusion

These findings indicate that the EBQ is a psychometrically sound and clinically useful measure.
Footnotes
1
Unequal variances were observed for the responses between non binge eating and binge eating groups, and between the normal BMI and higher BMI groups for the PBS only (Levene’s Test of Equality of Error Variances, all ps < .05). As the assumptions of homogeneity of variance were not met, the results from Welch Robust Test of Equality of Means have been used.
 
2
Observed power computed using alpha = .05. In this sample, observed power for EBQ Total = .61, EBQ Total*Time = .58; observed power for EBQ NBS = .77, EBQ NBS*Time = .71; observed power for EBQ PBS = .12, EBQ PBS*Time = .14.
 
3
Observed power computed using alpha = .05. In this sample, observed power for EBQ Total = .96, EBQ Total*Time = .99; observed power for EBQ NBS = .97, EBQ NBS*Time = .87; observed power for EBQ PBS = .50, EBQ PBS*Time = .86.
 
Literature
1.
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing; 2013.CrossRef
2.
Striegel-Moore RH, Dohm F, Solomon E, Fairburn C, Pike K, Wilfley D. Subthreshold binge eating disorder. Int J Eat Disord. 2000;27(3):270–8.CrossRefPubMed
3.
Wilfley DE, Wilson GT, Agras WS. The clinical significance of binge eating disorder. Int J Eat Disord. 2003;34(S1):S96–S106.CrossRefPubMed
4.
Kessler RC, Berglund PA, Chiu WT, Deitz AC, Hudson JI, Shahly V, et al. The prevalence and correlates of binge eating disorder in the World Health Organization world mental health surveys. Biol Psychiatry. 2013;73(9):904–14.
5.
Hay P, Mond J, Buttner P, Darby A. Eating disorder behaviors are increasing: findings from two sequential community surveys in South Australia. PLoS One. 2008;3(2):e1541.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
6.
Cooper MJ. Cognitive theory in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: progress, development and future directions. Clin Psychol Rev. 2005;25(4):511–31.CrossRefPubMed
7.
Fairburn CG, Wilson GT, Schleimer K. Binge eating: nature, assessment, and treatment. New York, NY: Guilford Press; 1993.
8.
Cooper MJ, Wells A, Todd G. A cognitive model of bulimia nervosa. Br J Clin Psychol. 2004;43(1):1–16.CrossRefPubMed
9.
Cooper MJ, Todd G, Wells A. Treating bulimia nervosa and binge eating: an integrated metacognitive and cognitive therapy manual. London, UK: Routledge; 2008.
10.
Groves SJ, Baillie AJ, Abbott MJ. The development and validation of the Eating Beliefs Questionnaire: Positive and negative beliefs about binge-eating. Submitted for publication. 2017.
11.
Fairburn CG, Beglin SJ. Assessment of eating disorders: interview or self-report questionnaire? Int J Eat Disord. 1994;16(4):363–70.PubMed
12.
Stice E, Telch CF, Rizvi SL. Development and validation of the eating disorder diagnostic scale: a brief self-report measure of anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorder. Psychol Assess. 2000;12(2):123.CrossRefPubMed
13.
Garner DM, Olmsted MP, Bohr Y, Garfinkel PE. The eating attitudes test: psychometric features and clinical correlates. Psychol Med. 1982;12(04):871–8.CrossRefPubMed
14.
Gormally J, Black S, Daston S, Rardin D. The assessment of binge eating severity among obese persons. Addict Behav. 1982;7(1):47–55.CrossRefPubMed
15.
Cooper MJ, Cohen-Tovée E, Todd G, Wells A, Tovée M. The eating disorder belief questionnaire: preliminary development. Behav Res Ther. 1997;35(4):381–8.CrossRefPubMed
16.
Stunkard AJ, Messick S. The three-factor eating questionnaire to measure dietary restraint, disinhibition and hunger. J Psychosom Res. 1985;29(1):71–83.CrossRefPubMed
17.
Van Strien T, Frijters JE, Bergers G, Defares PB. The Dutch eating behavior questionnaire (DEBQ) for assessment of restrained, emotional, and external eating behavior. Int J Eat Disord. 1986;5(2):295–315.CrossRef
18.
Cooper MJ, Todd G, Woolrich R, Somerville K, Wells A. Assessing eating disorder thoughts and behaviors: the development and preliminary evaluation of two questionnaires. Cogn Ther Res. 2006;30(5):551–70.CrossRef
19.
Burton AL, Abbott MJ, Modini M, Touyz S. Psychometric evaluation of self-report measures of binge eating symptoms and related psychopathology: a systematic review of the literature. Int J Eat Disord. 2016;49:123–40.CrossRefPubMed
20.
Terwee CB, Bot SD, de Boer MR, van der Windt DA, Knol DL, Dekker J, et al. Quality criteria were proposed for measurement properties of health status questionnaires. J Clin Epidemiol. 2007;60(1):34–42.
21.
Thelen MH, Farmer J, Wonderlich S, Smith M. A revision of the bulimia test: the BULIT—R. Psychological Assessment: A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 1991;3(1):119.CrossRef
22.
Henderson M, Freeman CP. A self-rating scale for bulimia. The ‘BITE’. The British Journal of Psychiatry. 1987;150(1):18–24.CrossRefPubMed
23.
Blackburn GL. Weight loss and risk factors. In: Fairburn CG, Brownell KD, editors. Eating disorders and obesity: a comprehensive handbook. New York, NY: Guildford Press; 2002. p. 484–9.
24.
Grilo CM, Masheb RM, Wilson GT. A comparison of different methods for assessing the features of eating disorders in patients with binge eating disorder. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2001;69(2):317.CrossRefPubMed
25.
Lovibond PF, Lovibond SH. The structure of negative emotional states: comparison of the depression anxiety stress scales (DASS) with the Beck depression and anxiety inventories. Behav Res Ther. 1995;33(3):335–43.CrossRefPubMed
26.
Antony MM, Bieling PJ, Cox BJ, Enns MW, Swinson RP. Psychometric properties of the 42-item and 21-item versions of the depression anxiety stress scales in clinical groups and a community sample. Psychol Assess. 1998;10(2):176.CrossRef
27.
Bergin J, Wade TD. Psychometric properties of the eating disorder belief questionnaire. Int J Eat Disord. 2014;47(6):640–6.CrossRefPubMed
28.
Fairchild H, Cooper M. A multidimensional measure of core beliefs relevant to eating disorders: preliminary development and validation. Eat Behav. 2010;11(4):239–46.CrossRefPubMed
29.
Gratz KL, Roemer L. Multidimensional assessment of emotion regulation and dysregulation: development, factor structure, and initial validation of the difficulties in emotion regulation scale. J Psychopathol Behav Assess. 2004;26(1):41–54.CrossRef
30.
Knowles MM, Foden P, El-Deredy W, Wells A. A Systematic Review of Efficacy of the Attention Training Technique in Clinical and Nonclinical Samples. J Clin Psychol. 2016;72(10):999-1025.
31.
Wells A. Panic disorder in association with relaxation induced anxiety: an attentional training approach to treatment. Behav Ther. 1990;21(3):273–80.CrossRef
32.
Donald J, Abbott MJ, Smith E. Comparison of attention training and cognitive therapy in the treatment of social phobia: a preliminary investigation. Behav Cogn Psychother. 2014;42(01):74–91.CrossRefPubMed
33.
Chemtob CM, Tolin DF, van der Kolk BA, Pitman RK. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2000.
34.
Arbuckle J. AMOS 22. Chicago, IL: SmallWaters Corporation; 2013.
35.
Hu L, Bentler PM. Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Struct Equ Model Multidiscip J. 1999;6(1):1–55.CrossRef
36.
McManus F, Waller G. A functional analysis of binge-eating. Clin Psychol Rev. 1995;15(8):845–63.CrossRef
37.
Fairburn CG, Cooper Z, Shafran R. Cognitive behaviour therapy for eating disorders: a “transdiagnostic” theory and treatment. Behav Res Ther. 2003;41(5):509–28.CrossRefPubMed
38.
Fairburn CG. Cognitive behavior therapy and eating disorders. New York, NY: Guilford Press; 2008.
39.
Waller G. Schema-level cognitions in patients with binge eating disorder: a case control study. Int J Eat Disord. 2003;33(4):458–64.CrossRefPubMed
40.
Stice E. A prospective test of the dual-pathway model of bulimic pathology: mediating effects of dieting and negative affect. J Abnorm Psychol. 2001;110(1):124.CrossRefPubMed
Metadata
Title
Confirmatory factor analysis and examination of the psychometric properties of the eating beliefs questionnaire
Authors
Amy L. Burton
Phillipa Hay
Sabina Kleitman
Evelyn Smith
Jayanthi Raman
Jessica Swinbourne
Stephen W. Touyz
Maree J. Abbott
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Psychiatry / Issue 1/2017
Electronic ISSN: 1471-244X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-017-1394-z

Other articles of this Issue 1/2017

BMC Psychiatry 1/2017 Go to the issue

Research article

The mediating effects of childhood neglect on the association between schizotypal and autistic personality traits and depression in a non-clinical sample

Research article

Mental health literacy among pediatric hospital staff in the United Arab Emirates

Study protocol

Design of the Lifestyle Interventions for severe mentally ill Outpatients in the Netherlands (LION) trial; a cluster randomised controlled study of a multidimensional web tool intervention to improve cardiometabolic health in patients with severe mental illness

Erratum

Erratum to: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors versus placebo in patients with major depressive disorder. A systematic review with meta-analysis and Trial Sequential Analysis

Research article

Serious child and adolescent behaviour disorders; a valuation study by professionals, youth and parents

Research article

QLiS-SF: Development of a short form of the quality of life in schizophrenia questionnaire