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The branched eating disorders test: validity in a nonclinical population
1Centre for Adolescent Health, Royal Children's Hospital, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Objective:
To develop an effective measure of the symptoms of eating disorders for use in community surveys.
Method:
A branched eating disorders instrument for administration by notebook computer was evaluated as a screen in 487 teenage schoolgirls. High scorers and a stratified sample of low scorers were evaluated in a second-stage interview with the Eating Disorders Examination (EDE).
Results:
The Branched Eating Disorders Test (BET) proved to have exceptional validity coefficients (sensitivity 100%, specificity 99%, positive predictive value 70%).
Discussion:
This pilot validation suggests that the BET largely overcomes the problems of earlier instruments of limited screening utility when applied to community samples.