The psychometric evaluation of the Revised Exercise Addiction Inventory: Improved psychometric properties by changing item response rating

BACKGROUND: The Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI) is a short, valid, and reliable instrument used to assess the risk for exercise addiction, and has already been used in numerous published studies. The EAI contains six items, rated on a 5-point scale (strongly agree to strongly disagree), which are based on the components model of addiction. The middle of the original scale (scoring 3 out of 5) reflects neither agreement nor disagreement, which conveys neutrality. However, the present authors believe that individual who provides a neutral opinion on each item (i.e., scoring 3) is a conceptual dilemma because it artificially increases the total score obtainable on the scale without yielding agreement or disagreement with a particular item. Indeed, the six items of the EAI are phrased in such way that respondents can either agree or disagree in the slightly to strongly range. METHODS: This study modified the EAI from a 5-point rating scale to a 6-point one, so that it eliminated a middle neutral response. A total of 277 exercising participants completed the Revised Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI-R) and Exercise Dependence Scale. RESULTS: All psychometric properties of the EAI-R were superior to the originally published scale. CONCLUSION: Considering these findings, it is recommended that scholars now use the EAI-R in the future research if they need to assess the risk of exercise addiction.