Establishment of a Japanese version of the Sick, Control, One Stone, Fat, and Food (SCOFF) questionnaire for screening eating disorders in university students

• Published in: BMC research notes 2021-04, Vol.14 (1), p.142-142, Article 142
• Main Authors: Hosoda, Yutaka, Ohtani, Toshiyuki, Hanazawa, Hisashi, Tanaka, Mami, Kimura, Hiroshi, Ohsako, Noriaki, Hashimoto, Tasuku, Kobori, Osamu, Iyo, Masaomi, Nakazato, Michiko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age; Body mass index; Bodyweight loss; College students; Colleges & universities; Demographic aspects; Diagnosis; Early detection; Eating disorders; Evaluation; Feeding and Eating Disorders - diagnosis; Feeding and Eating Disorders - psychology; Female; Health aspects; Humans; Japan; Male; Psychological aspects; Psychometrics - methods; Questionnaires; Reproducibility of Results; Research Note; Screening questionnaire; Sensitivity and Specificity; Students - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Translations and translating; Universities; University students; Validity; Weight Loss; Women
• ISSN: 1756-0500; 1756-0500
• DOI: 10.1186/s13104-021-05549-0

This study aimed to validate the Sick, Control, One stone, Fat, and Food (SCOFF) questionnaire in relation to the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and to examine the appropriateness of a question concerning weight loss among Japanese university students. The psychometric properties of the two Japanese versions were determined among 649 Japanese college students. The original version (SCOFF-O) employed the original item 3, whereas the revised version (SCOFF-2.5) modified the item to "Have you recently lost more than 2.5 kg within three months?" Validity was tested relative to EDE-Q. The test-retest reliabilities of SCOFF-O and SCOFF-2.5 were 0.52 and 0.57, while the correlations of SCOFF-O and SCOFF-2.5 with EDE-Q were r = 0.53 and r = 0.56. The sensitivity and specificity of SCOFF-O were 65.2 and 89.7, and those of SCOFF-2.5 were 69.5 and 86.5, respectively. There were significant correlations between the question concerning losing 2.5 kg and the EDE-Q subscales. The Japanese version of SCOFF-2.5 is an appropriate tool for the early screening of eating disorders among Japanese university students.