BACKGROUND: Grazing is one of the atypical behaviors that are present among obese patients with or without binge eating disorder (BED). Nevertheless, this behavior has only rarely been reported and frequently neglected in clinical assessments and research. The only self-report measure available to assess this eating behavior is the Grazing Questionnaire (GQ) but currently no Italian validation exists. METHODS: Therefore, we recruited 293 undergraduate students to validate the Italian version of the GQ. GQ total score was correlated with eating psychopathology, binge eating, night eating, anxiety and mood symptoms. Second order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model, Cronbach’s α, and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) test-retest, were used to evaluate structure, reliability, and stability, respectively. RESULTS: CFA confirmed the two factors structure as in the original version. Internal consistency of the total scale was α=0.82, grazing behavior α=0.83 and controllability α=0.77. The three-week test-retest reliability was excellent (ICC [95% CI]= 0.906 (0.884-0.924). Regarding construct validity, we found moderate-high correlations between GQ and other measures. CONCLUSIONS: The Italian version of GQ appears to be a valid and reliable tool to investigate grazing behavior in future studies among Italian speaking countries.
Italian validation of the Grazing Questionnaire: analysis of psychometric properties
Aloi M;De Fazio P;Segura Garcia C
2017-01-01
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Grazing is one of the atypical behaviors that are present among obese patients with or without binge eating disorder (BED). Nevertheless, this behavior has only rarely been reported and frequently neglected in clinical assessments and research. The only self-report measure available to assess this eating behavior is the Grazing Questionnaire (GQ) but currently no Italian validation exists. METHODS: Therefore, we recruited 293 undergraduate students to validate the Italian version of the GQ. GQ total score was correlated with eating psychopathology, binge eating, night eating, anxiety and mood symptoms. Second order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model, Cronbach’s α, and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) test-retest, were used to evaluate structure, reliability, and stability, respectively. RESULTS: CFA confirmed the two factors structure as in the original version. Internal consistency of the total scale was α=0.82, grazing behavior α=0.83 and controllability α=0.77. The three-week test-retest reliability was excellent (ICC [95% CI]= 0.906 (0.884-0.924). Regarding construct validity, we found moderate-high correlations between GQ and other measures. CONCLUSIONS: The Italian version of GQ appears to be a valid and reliable tool to investigate grazing behavior in future studies among Italian speaking countries.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
