A new instrument measuring disturbed eating patterns in community populations: development and initial validation of a five‐item scale (EDS‐5)

This paper reports on the development and validation of a brief scale, the Eating Disturbance Scale (EDS‐5), as a screening instrument for problematic eating disorders in normal populations. A nationwide sample of 6313 subjects completed 22 questions about eating patterns. Using principal component analysis, these questions were cut down to five items, forming a scale. From another epidemiological study ( N = 835), 51 female subjects responded to these five questions in addition to a clinical interview. The scale yielded a Cronbach alpha of 0.83 and 0.86, respectively, Also, a sensitivity and specificity of 0.90 and 0.88 was found with respect to DSM‐IV eating disorders. The concurrent and construct validity show significant correlations with Eating Disorder Inventory subscales measuring disturbed eating ( M = 0.55, range 0.44–0.73), and even higher correlations with similar factors from the self‐report version of the Eating Disorder Examination ( M = 0.73, range 0.60–0.89). The results suggest that the EDS‐5 is sensitive to disordered eating patterns and that this instrument appears promising for screening purposes in community samples.