Validation of the SCOFF questionnaire for eating disorders in a multiethnic general population sample

Francesca Solmi; Stephani L. Hatch; Matthew Hotopf; Janet Treasure; Nadia Micali

doi:10.1002/eat.22373

Validation of the SCOFF questionnaire for eating disorders in a multiethnic general population sample

Francesca Solmi^*, Stephani L. Hatch, Matthew Hotopf, Janet Treasure, Nadia Micali

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to validate the SCOFF, an eating disorders (ED) screening questionnaire, in a multiethnic general population sample of adults. Method: A two-stage design was employed using the South East London Community Health Study phases I and II data. A total of 1,669 participants were screened using the SCOFF in SELCoHI, and 145 were administrated an ED clinical interview in SELCoHII. We explored the diagnostic validity of the questionnaire restricting to the 145 individuals with the clinical questionnaire. Results: Sensitivity and specificity of the SCOFF were 53.7 and 93.5%, respectively. Conclusion: The SCOFF showed good levels of specificity but low sensitivity, resulting in a high percentage of false negatives. Given the low sensitivity found in our sample the SCOFF is likely to be a suboptimal measure for the identification of ED in the community.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	312-316
Number of pages	5
Journal	International Journal of Eating Disorders
Volume	48
Issue number	3
Early online date	12 Dec 2014
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22373
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2015

Keywords

diagnostic validity
eating disorders
SCOFF

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Validation of the SCOFF questionnaire_SOLMI__First online 12Dec2014_GOLD VoRFinal published version, 78.2 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Validation of the SCOFF questionnaire for eating disorders in a multiethnic general population sample",

abstract = "Introduction: This study aimed to validate the SCOFF, an eating disorders (ED) screening questionnaire, in a multiethnic general population sample of adults. Method: A two-stage design was employed using the South East London Community Health Study phases I and II data. A total of 1,669 participants were screened using the SCOFF in SELCoHI, and 145 were administrated an ED clinical interview in SELCoHII. We explored the diagnostic validity of the questionnaire restricting to the 145 individuals with the clinical questionnaire. Results: Sensitivity and specificity of the SCOFF were 53.7 and 93.5%, respectively. Conclusion: The SCOFF showed good levels of specificity but low sensitivity, resulting in a high percentage of false negatives. Given the low sensitivity found in our sample the SCOFF is likely to be a suboptimal measure for the identification of ED in the community.",

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AU - Solmi, Francesca

AU - Hatch, Stephani L.

AU - Hotopf, Matthew

AU - Treasure, Janet

AU - Micali, Nadia

PY - 2015/4/1

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N2 - Introduction: This study aimed to validate the SCOFF, an eating disorders (ED) screening questionnaire, in a multiethnic general population sample of adults. Method: A two-stage design was employed using the South East London Community Health Study phases I and II data. A total of 1,669 participants were screened using the SCOFF in SELCoHI, and 145 were administrated an ED clinical interview in SELCoHII. We explored the diagnostic validity of the questionnaire restricting to the 145 individuals with the clinical questionnaire. Results: Sensitivity and specificity of the SCOFF were 53.7 and 93.5%, respectively. Conclusion: The SCOFF showed good levels of specificity but low sensitivity, resulting in a high percentage of false negatives. Given the low sensitivity found in our sample the SCOFF is likely to be a suboptimal measure for the identification of ED in the community.

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Validation of the SCOFF questionnaire for eating disorders in a multiethnic general population sample

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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