Development and validation of Croatian version of Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire in community sample

Purpose The Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) is one of the most commonly used tools for identification of eating disorder (ED) symptoms. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Croatian version of the EDE-Q 6.0. Methods Participants were 279 individuals from a community sample (215 females; 64 males) with an average age of 24.61 +/- 5.68 years. The Eating Attitudes Test-26 and Body Image Satisfaction Scale were used to determine the convergent validity of the EDE-Q. Four-, three-, two-, and single-factor models were tested, together with a brief 8-item version of the EDE-Q. Results Confirmatory factor analysis yielded a better fit of the original four-factor model when compared to other models, although the best model-data fit was obtained when testing subscales individually with correlations between factors ranging from 0.30 to 0.99. However, item 10 had to be excluded from the shape concern subscale to reach an acceptable fit. Correlation analyses showed that the EDE-Q has good convergent validity, but additional calculations discovered its tendency to overestimate ED symptomatology. Conclusions This study is the first to show satisfactory psychometric properties of the Croatian version of the EDE-Q with minor modifications of the original questionnaire. The Croatian translation and validation of the EDE-Q enables researchers and clinicians in Croatia to employ the most widely and commonly used instrument for the assessment of core ED features.