The exercise addiction inventory: a quick and easy screening tool for health practitioners: Table 1

Abstract

Background: Exercise addiction is not routinely screened for probably because available instruments take a long time to administer, their scoring may be complicated, and their interpretation is not always obvious. A new psychometric instrument has been developed that is capable of identifying people affected by, or at risk of, exercise addiction: the exercise addiction inventory (EAI). A preliminary report showed the EAI had good reliability and validity. Objectives: To test further the EAI's psychometric properties and show that it would be quick and simple to administer by general practitioners. Methods: A sample of 200 habitual exercisers were given the EAI and two existing exercise addiction scales (obligatory exercise questionnaire; exercise dependence scale). Two weeks later, another sample of 79 exercisers were administered the EAI to determine the test-retest reliability of the questionnaire. Results: The original data from the preliminary report were reanalysed to determine the split half correlation of the EAI. This was found to be 0.84 (Guttman split-half coefficient). A correlation between weekly frequency of exercising and EAI scores was also determined, and it was found that the two variables shared 29% of the variance (r 2 = 0.29). The testretest reliability of the scale was found to be very good (0.85). Conclusions: The EAI is a valid and reliable tool which would be capable of helping general practitioners to quickly and easily identify people affected by, or at risk of, exercise addiction.

Effects of a single aerobic exercise session on body image

“…This study is the first investigation of the prevalence of exercise addiction in a Hungarian sample of female aerobic exercisers. We found that 7.5% of the sample were at risk for exercise addiction, which is higher than the previously reported prevalence of exercise addiction (Griffiths et al, 2005;Hausenblas & Symons Downs, 2001;Mónok et al, 2012), but similar to our findings in an earlier study of a similar population of women (Béres et al, 2013).…”

“…There were no group differences in exercise addiction categories (χ 2 (2) = 0.060, p = .970). A higher proportion of our sample were at risk for exercise addiction than in previously reported international data on physically active populations (Hausenblas & Symons Downs, 2001: 2.5%, χ 2 (1) = 32.416, p < .001; Griffiths, Szabo, & Terry, 2005: 3%, χ 2 (1) = 21.946, p < .001). Prevalence of at-risk for exercise addiction status was higher in our sample than in one recent Hungarian study which used a representative sample of physically active adults (3.2%, χ 2 (1) = 18.806, p < .001), but another study (Béres et al, 2013) reported a 6.7% rate of at-risk for exercise addiction in a similar population; this did not differ significantly from that observed in our study (χ 2 (1) = 0.292, p = .589).…”

“…Epidemiological studies reported different prevalence rates. Hausenblas and Symons Downs (2002) and Griffiths, Szabo and Terry (2005) found similar 2,5% and 3% prevalence rates among habitual exercisers. A study conducted among triathletes reported 52% rate of exercise addiction (Blaydon & Lindner, 2002).…”

Potential Adverse Cardiovascular Effects From Excessive Endurance Exercise

“…67 A questionnaire developed to identify obligatory exercisers may be useful for screening veteran endurance athletes. 68 …”

Validation of the exercise and eating disorders questionnaire

“…In the EDS‐R, all the criteria for dependence in the DSM‐IV were included and linked to exercise behavior. The Exercise Addiction Inventory22 is a short version related to addiction models of understanding exercise. Within this framework, eating disorders are theoretically linked to secondary dependency of exercise.…”