Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, 35131 Padova, Italy.
Clinical Psychology Research Laboratory, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, San Giuseppe Hospital, 28824 Verbania, Italy.
Nutrients. 2024 Feb 16;16(4):550. doi: 10.3390/nu16040550.
Food addiction (FA) and disordered eating behaviors related to obesity are gaining attention in clinical and research fields. The modified Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (mYFAS2.0) is the gold standard questionnaire to measure FA, while another tool is the Measure of Eating Compulsivity 10 (MEC10). Discriminant validity is present when two measures of similar but distinct constructs show a correlation that is low enough for the factors to be regarded as distinct. However, the discriminant validity of these measures has never been tested. Through a cross-sectional study design, 717 inpatients (females: 56.20%, age: 53.681 ± 12.74) with severe obesity completed the MEC10, Binge Eating Scale (BES), and mYFAS2.0. A structural equation model (SEM) was fitted, freely estimating latent correlations with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). The results confirmed the scales' excellent psychometric properties. Importantly, latent factor correlations between MEC10 and mYFAS2.0 (est = 0.783, 95% CI [0.76, 0.80]) supported their discriminant validity. In contrast, the latent correlation of MEC10 and BES (est = 0.86, 95% CI [0.84, 0.87]) exceeded the recommended thresholds, indicating the absence of discriminant validity and suggesting a potential overlap, consistent with previous evidence. In conclusion, MEC10 demonstrates excellent psychometric properties but is more a measure of BED and not FA.
食物成瘾（FA）和与肥胖相关的饮食行为紊乱在临床和研究领域受到关注。改良耶鲁食物成瘾量表 2.0（mYFAS2.0）是衡量 FA 的金标准问卷，而另一个工具是进食强迫量表 10（MEC10）。当两个相似但不同结构的测量工具显示出相关性足够低的情况下，就存在判别有效性，这些因素被视为不同的。然而，这些测量工具的判别有效性从未被测试过。通过横断面研究设计，717 名患有严重肥胖症的住院患者（女性：56.20%，年龄：53.681±12.74）完成了 MEC10、暴食症量表（BES）和 mYFAS2.0。拟合了结构方程模型（SEM），自由估计潜在相关性，并带有 95%置信区间（95%CI）。结果证实了这些量表的出色心理测量特性。重要的是，MEC10 和 mYFAS2.0 的潜在因子相关性（est=0.783，95%CI[0.76，0.80]）支持了它们的判别有效性。相比之下，MEC10 和 BES 的潜在相关性（est=0.86，95%CI[0.84，0.87]）超过了推荐的阈值，表明缺乏判别有效性，这表明存在潜在的重叠，与之前的证据一致。总之，MEC10 表现出出色的心理测量特性，但更像是 BED 的衡量标准，而不是 FA。
