The Modified Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0: Validation Among Non-Clinical and Clinical French-Speaking Samples and Comparison With the Full Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0

Abstract

Objectives: The modified Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (mYFAS 2.0) was designed to assess food addiction using a shorter version than the YFAS 2.0. We lack data about the psychometric properties of the mYFAS 2.0 in patients with obesity, as well as studies comparing the psychometric properties of the mYFAS 2.0 versus the full YFAS 2.0. This study aimed to validate the French-language mYFAS 2.0 in a non-clinical population (study 1, n = 250), to determine the yet unknown psychometric properties of this scale in patients with obesity (study 2, n = 345), and to compare the full YFAS 2.0 and the mYFAS 2.0 in terms of food addiction (FA) prevalence and symptoms detection in both populations. Method: Study 1 included 250 non-clinical individuals (non-underweight and non-obese persons screened negative for eating disorders). Study 2 included 345 bariatric surgery candidates recruited in three centers (Quebec, Canada; Reims and Tours, France). The mYFAS 2.0 structure was investigated using confirmatory factorial analyses with tetrachoric correlations. Convergent validity was tested using the full YFAS 2.0, the Binge Eating Scale (both studies), the revised 18-item Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (study 1), the Beck Depression Inventory (study 2), and the body mass index (BMI; both studies).

The Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 and the modified Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 in Taiwan: Factor structure and concurrent validity

“…The construct validity of the mYFAS 2.0 has been confirmed in prior research and has supported the 11-factor structure of the mYFAS 2.0 (18). Moreover, the association between the mYFAS 2.0 and its original version (i.e., YFAS 2.0) has been found to be satisfactory (18,19). As far as the present authors' are aware, the mYFAS 2.0 has been psychometrically evaluated in eight previous studies.…”

Validation of the Arabic version of the modified Yale Food Addiction Scale in the general population in Lebanon

“…The one-factor structure that has been previously found in multiple validation papers (German [37], Turkish [40], French [39], Czech [41], and Italian [38]), was confirmed in our sample. In terms of reliability, the Cronbach's alpha value obtained in the present study (0.859) was higher than the one found in the Turkish (0.70) [40], German (0.82) [37], and French (0.79) [39] versions, but a little lower than the one found in the Czech version (0.89) [41].…”

“…The one-factor structure that has been previously found in multiple validation papers (German [37], Turkish [40], French [39], Czech [41], and Italian [38]), was confirmed in our sample. In terms of reliability, the Cronbach's alpha value obtained in the present study (0.859) was higher than the one found in the Turkish (0.70) [40], German (0.82) [37], and French (0.79) [39] versions, but a little lower than the one found in the Czech version (0.89) [41]. In addition, mYAS-AR-Leb score was significantly and strongly associated with higher mental health issues in the present study; these findings corroborate the ones found in a meta-analysis [17], which showed that there is a connection between some criteria of mental illness and those of food addiction.…”

“…The mYFAS has been validated in multiple languages, including but not limited to Brazilian [29], Spanish [30], Italian [31,32], Czech [33], French [34], Chinese [35], and Arabic in Egypt [36]. The German, Turkish, French, Italy, and Czech studies that assessed the validation of the Modified Yale Food Addiction Scale, showed a one-factor structure [37][38][39][40][41], except for the Chinese version (among college students) with a two-factor solution "behavioural symptoms of food addiction" and "adverse consequences of food addiction" [42]. The latter validations provided empirical support for the use of the mYFAS as a reliable and valid tool to assess food addiction.…”

Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0) and modified YFAS 2.0 (mYFAS 2.0): Rasch analysis and differential item functioning

“…The model contains more quantitative information and a continuous scale of measurement compared to a CTT approach and assumes that each individual has a fixed latent tendency along with each item with a particular fixed difficulty [25]. The Rasch model also will help assess the unidimensionality of both the YFAS 2.0 and mYFAS 2.0, and both instruments have been found to be unidimensional [20,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. Moreover, both the YFAS 2.0 and mYFAS 2.0 were expected to create a single factor structure of FA to differentiate between those with or without FA [18,19].…”