The Florence Emotional Eating Drive (FEED): a validation study of a self-report questionnaire for emotional eating

Abstract

Purpose Emotional eating is a trans-diagnostic dimension in eating disorders and is present in many other conditions that could affect eating attitudes. At present, there is no instrument that measures emotional eating evaluating both the intensity and the frequency of emotion-induced desire to eat. The aim of the study was the validation of the Florence Emotional Eating Drive (FEED). Methods A sample of healthy volunteers was initially enrolled to explore internal consistency and test–retest reliability. The Emotional Eating Scale (EES), Eating Disorders Evaluation-Questionnaire (EDE-Q), Binge Eating Scale (BES) and Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90-R), together with the final version of FEED, were administered to a clinical sample composed by patients with eating disorders, obesity, and type 2 diabetes, to explore the underlying structure of the questionnaire and verify its validity. Results FEED showed excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.96) and test–retest reliability (r = 0.93). FEED scores were higher in patients with BN and BED than in AN patients, negatively correlated with age and positively with BES and EES. Multiple regression analysis showed that FEED, but not EES, was independently associated with SCL-90-R and EDE-Q scores. Conclusion FEED internal consistency and test–retest reliability were excellent. The addition of specific questions on the frequency of behaviours led to a better component structure and robustness compared to EES. A tool that reliably and specifically assesses eating behaviours driven by emotional states may be extremely useful in clinical settings. Level of evidence Level V, cross-sectional study.

On the misuse of “weighted” composite scores: the scoring procedure of the FEED questionnaire does not indicate whether it is necessary to differentiate between the frequency of experiencing an emotion and the desire to eat in response to that emotion in the assessment of emotional eating

“…Recently, Cassioli et al [ 1 ] developed the Florence Emotional Eating Drive (FEED) questionnaire for the assessment of emotional eating. In contrast to existing emotional eating questionnaires, the FEED not only assesses how strong the desire to eat is in response to different emotions, but also how often this emotion is experienced in the first place.…”