The Eating Attitude Test and the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh are used to assess symptoms of eating disorders. A variety of behaviors may be related to eating problems: minor psychiatric disorders; self-perception of body weight, frequency of reading diet magazines; frequency of restrictive diets, family influence and physical activity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the Portuguese version of the Eating Attitude Test, the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh, the General Health Questionnaire and other issues related to eating disorders, as part of a multidimensional self-administered health and eating behavior questionnaire. A test-retest design was used as part of a pilot test conducted in a sample of 60 female undergraduate students from a public university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Analyses were conducted using the Kappa Coefficient (K). The mean female age was 20.2 years. The main results showed that the reliability of the Eating Attitude Test, Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh, practice of physical activity, and the question on self-perception of body weight was "almost perfect", respectively, K=0.81 (95%CI, 0.59-1.0); K=0.85 (95%CI, 0.70-0.99); K=0.83 (95%CI, 0.70-0.93), and Kw=0.84 (95%CI, 0.70-0.95). Reliability of parents' influence, frequency of reading diet articles, the GHQ's and frequency of use of restrictive diets was "substantial", respectively, K=0.76 (95%CI, 0.57-0.95); Kw=0.71 (95%CI, 0.52-0.91), K=0.70 (95%CI, 0.54-0.93), and Kw=0.92 (95%CI 0.85-0.98). Results suggest that these questionnaires are tools with good reproducibility for undergraduate students, as well as for other issues.
Reliability; Eating disorders; Questionnaires; Mental disorders; Reproducibility of results
