[Validation of the SCOFF questionnaire for screening the eating behaviour disorders of adolescents in school].

OBJECTIVE

To determine the internal consistency and criteria validity of the SCOFF questionnaire for screening adolescent eating behaviour disorders.

DESIGN

Validation study with stochastic sampling.

SETTING

Three schools at Bucaramanga, Colombia.

PARTICIPANTS

241 students selected at random from 1595 possible ones.

MAIN INTERVENTIONS

SCOFF questionnaire and semi-structured CIDI interview, administered independently.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS

Social and personal details, Cronbach's alpha, sensitivity analysis, specificity, forecast values, Cohen mean kappa test, and ROC curve.

RESULTS

Sensitivity found was 81.9% (95% CI, 70.7-89.7) and specificity, 78.7% (95% CI, 71.7-84.6). The area under the ROC curve was 0.8596 (95% CI, 0.8108-0.9084); the Cronbach's alpha test, 0.436, and the Cohen mean kappa, 0.554 (95% CI, 0.425-0.683).

CONCLUSIONS

The SCOFF questionnaire is an acceptable alternative for screening groups of adolescents because of its simplicity and speed of administration.