Turkish version of the Yale Food Addiction Scale: preliminary results of factorial structure, reliability, and construct validity

Abstract

BackgroundYale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) was established to identify individuals exhibiting signs of addiction towards certain types of food. This study aimed to develop a Turkish version of the Yale Food Addiction Scale and test its psychometric properties.MethodsThe backward translation techniques were used to develop Turkish versions of the YFAS, and its reproducibility was assessed. Turkish version of the YFAS was administered to a total of 1033 participants (439 men and 594 women), aged 19–65 years. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to examine the factorial structure of the tool. Construct validity was assessed by principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation. Reliabilities were estimated with Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The criterion-related validity was tested by the administration of Eating Attitude Test-26 (EAT-26) to all participants.ResultsThe primary factor loadings for seven items were ranged between 0.45 and 0.79, and no items cross-loaded onto other factors. The fit indices showed that eight items of the YFAS were a good representation of the item responses and each item loaded significantly on the specified factor (p < 0.001 for each). YFAS subscales had a high internal consistency and test–retest reliability. The criterion-related validity of the tool showed a positive relationship with scales of the EAT-26.ConclusionCurrent study suggested that the Turkish version of the YFAS is a reliable, valid, and useful tool for assessing the signs of food addiction in a non-clinical sample.

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 prevalence of food addiction in our sample was 17.8%, a similar percentage to the one found in a metaanalysis (16.2%) [17], but higher than the ones found in Turkey (11.8%) [40], USA (11.4%) [27], Germany (8.8%) [66], and France (8.7%) [67] (using the YFAS scale in those four countries). Multiple factors were previously shown to be related to more food addiction, including but not limited to emotions and stress [68], brain chemistry [69], trauma [70] and genetics [20].…”

“…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 (Version 2.0): language and cultural adaptation

“…Йельская шкала пищевой зависимости может рассматриваться как первый опросник для оценки аддиктивного пищевого поведения, основанный на формальном подходе DSM-IV (APA, 2000) к диагностическим критериям зависимости от вещества [3]. обновленная версия Йельской шкалы [4] валидирована во многих странах мира [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. По нашим данным, на сегодняшний день отсутствует опубликованная адаптированная русскоязычная версия Йельской шкалы (версии 2,0).…”