Are overvalued ideas about weight and shape overvalued ideas in the diagnosis of early onset anorexia nervosa?

Abstract

Objective: The Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) is a reliable and valid semi-structured interview, which measures the specific psychopathology of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. This study aims to investigate the psychometric properties of the child adaptation of version 12.0D of the EDE (ChEDE 12.0). Method: The ChEDE 12.0 was administered to 15 children with anorexia nervosa (AN), 15 children with other clinical eating disturbances and two groups of 15 age-matched controls. The groups were compared using a two sample matched groups design. Results: Alpha coefficients for each of the ChEDE 12.0 subscales indicated a high degree of internal consistency, and inter-rater reliability was found to be high (r=0.91 to r=1.00). The subscale scores of the AN group were significantly higher than those of the other groups, whilst the other eating disturbance group did not differ from its control group. Discussion: The ChEDE 12.0 differentiates children with AN from children with other forms of clinical eating disturbance and control children. The hypothesis that children with early onset anorexia nervosa would not evidence significant weight and shape concern is refuted