The Validity of the Eating Disorder Examination and its Subscales

Abstract

The EDE is a semistructured interview which has been developed as a measure of the specific psychopathology of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. To establish its discriminant validity it was administered to 100 patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa and to 42 controls. The two groups differed significantly on all items. Five subscales were derived on rational grounds and evaluated on the two populations. The alpha coefficients for each subscale indicated a satisfactory degree of internal consistency. The EDE provides clinicians and research workers with a detailed and comprehensive profile of the psychopathological features of patients with eating disorders.

Behavioral Responses to Catecholamine Depletion in Unmedicated, Remitted Subjects with Bulimia Nervosa and Healthy Subjects

“…EDE-Q is a 28-items self-report scale originated from the Eating Disorder Examination interview (EDE) (25,26) designed to measure behavioral and cognitive features of eating disorders. Respondents indicate the value of particular feelings and attitudes towards eating behavior and body concerns over a definite time frame.…”

The classification of bulimic eating disorders: a community-based cluster analysis study

“…The overall severity of eating disorder psychopathology may be quantified using the global EDE score (the mean of the five EDE subscale scores (Fairburn & Cooper, 1993)). Tests of the reliability and validity of the EDE support its use (Cooper et al 1989;Wilson & Smith, 1989;Rosen et al 1990;Beumont et al 1993).…”

“…The overall severity of eating disorder psychopathology may be quantified using the global EDE score (the mean of the five EDE subscale scores (Fairburn & Cooper, 1993)). Tests of the reliability and validity of the EDE support its use (Cooper et al 1989;Wilson & Smith, 1989;Rosen et al 1990;Beumont et al 1993).The EDE distinguishes four forms of overeating; objective bulimic episodes, subjective bulimic episodes, episodes of objective overeating and episodes of subjective over-eating. These are mutually exclusive, although it is not uncommon for subjects to have episodes of more than one type.…”

Diagnostic Classification of Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents: How Does DSM-IV-TR Compare to Empirically-Derived Categories?

“…The presence and frequency of specific eating and compensatory behaviors during the three months before the assessment are collected, including objective binge eating, subjective binge eating (collected only one month before the assessment), self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics, excessive exercising, and fasting. The EDE has shown excellent reliability and validity, 22,24 and studies indicate that the child interview also demonstrates good reliability and validity. 23,[25][26] Interviewers were trained in the administration of both the adult and child versions of the interview -which capture the same sets of symptoms -and were able to use the more simple language in the child version to ensure comprehension by children and younger adolescents.…”