ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: Eating attitudes are defined as beliefs, thoughts, feelings, behaviors and relationship with food. They could influence people's food choices and their health status. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to adapt from Portuguese to English the Disordered Eating Attitude Scale (DEAS) and evaluate its validity and reliability. The original scale in Portuguese was translated and adapted into English and was applied to female university students of University of Minnesota-USA (n=224). Internal consistency was determined (Cronbach's Alpha). Convergent validity was assessed by correlations between Eating Attitude Test-26 (EAT-26) and Restrain Scale (RS). Reliability was evaluated applying twice the scale to a sub-sample (n=30). The scale was back translated into Portuguese and compared with the original version and discrepancies were not found. The internal consistency was .76. The DEAS total score was significantly associated with EAT-26 (r=0.65) and RS (r=0.69) scores. The correlation between test-retest was r=0.9. The English version of DEAS showed appropriate internal consistency, convergent validity and test-retest reliability and will be useful to assess eating attitudes in different population groups in English spoken countries.
Subject(s)
Feeding and Eating Disorders/psychology , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Psychometrics , Adolescent , Adult , Attitude , Eating , Female , Humans , Minnesota , Population Groups , Reproducibility of Results , Surveys and Questionnaires , Translating , Young AdultABSTRACT
Eating attitudes are defined as beliefs, thoughts, feelings and behaviors towards food. Bulimia nervosa (BN) is an eating disorder, in which the eating attitudes are seriously disturbed. Studies that evaluated nutritional aspects of BN focus mainly on food intake, dietary restriction and binge eating, while the follow-up studies evaluate mainly clinical symptoms. The objective of this study was to evaluate eating attitudes of patients with BN, during and after cognitive-behavioral intervention. Thirty nine (39) BN female patients received cognitive behavioral treatment with a multidisciplinary team and had eating attitudes assessed by a questionnaire developed for this research. Frequencies of the attitudes assessed were compared at baseline, after 12 weeks and 24 weeks of treatment. After treatment, patients had less distorted beliefs about food, less guilty after eating "forbidden" foods and they felt more tranquil while eating outside home. Other negative behaviors, as dietary restriction, the desire of not eat, being angry when feeling hungry and using the food to relive stress, persisted. Eating attitudes of patients with BN are hard to be changed in a short-term. More attention to this disease's component and new approaches to treatment are needed in order to have a better recovery.
