Diseño y validación de un cuestionario para evaluar el nivel de conocimientos generales en trastornos del comportamiento alimentario en estudiantes de ciencias de la salud

OBJECTIVE: To design and validate a questionnaire to assess the level of knowledge regarding eating disorders in college students. DESIGN: Observational, prospective, and longitudinal study, with the design of the questionnaire based on a conceptual review and validation by a cognitive pre-test and pilot test-retest, with analysis of the psychometric properties in each application. LOCATION: University Foundation of Bages, Barcelona. Marco community care. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 140 students from Health Sciences; 53 women and 87 men with a mean age of 21.87 years; 28 participated in the pre-test and 112 in the test-retests, 110 students completed the study. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Validity and stability study using Cronbach α and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient statistics; relationship skills with sex and type of study, non-parametric statistical Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests; for demographic variables, absolute or percentage frequencies, as well as mean, central tendency and standard deviation as measures of dispersion were calculated. The statistical significance level was 95% confidence. RESULTS: The questionnaire was obtained that had 10 questions divided into four dimensions (classification, demographics characteristics of patients, risk factors and clinical manifestations of eating disorders). The scale showed good internal consistency in its final version (Cronbach α = 0.724) and adequate stability (Pearson correlation 0.749). CONCLUSIONS: The designed tool can be accurately used to assess Health Sciences students’ knowledge of eating disorders.