Validez y utilidad diagnóstica de la escala Eating Attitudes Test-26 para la evaluación del riesgo de trastornos de la conducta alimentaria en población masculina de Medellín, Colombia()

OBJECTIVE: To establish the diagnostic validity and usefulness of Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26) for the risk assessment of eating disorders in a male population. DESCRIPTION: Observational validation study questionnaire. SETTING: Performed in Medellin city at a community care level of mixed (public and private) psychiatric clinics. SUBJECTS: The study included 21 male subjects aged ≥ 14 with DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS), and 93 controls without ED. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS: A convenience sample was used for the cases and a simple, randomised one for controls. A reference standard (structured psychiatrist interview confirming the fulfilment of ED case inclusion criteria) was compared with the EAT-26 questionnaire. Reliability, cultural, semantics, and factorial validation were performed, and the best cut-off score was established with the ROC curve. RESULTS: Four domains remain in the instrument: dieting-bulimia and food pre-occupation, dieting, oral control-dieting, and oral control-bulimia. The Cronbach's alpha was 0.89, and a score of ≥ 20 is the best cut-off (sensitivity = 100% and specificity = 97.8%). The positive predictive value was 91.3% and the negative predictive value was 100.0%. CONCLUSIONS: EAT-26 questionnaire is an ideal multidimensional instrument for Eating Disorder screening in risk populations, with excellent reliability, sensitivity and specificity values. EAT-26 could be a useful tool to be considered when strategies for early detection of Eating Disorders are implemented in the male population.