Objective

Despite evidence supporting the use of measures to track ongoing progress and outcome in treatment, there is a relative absence of measures that are appropriate for this purpose in youth with eating disorders. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Eating Disorder-15 for Youth (ED-15-Y) scale, including its ability to detect short-term change in symptomatology.

Method

Youth (N = 203) ages 8-18 years completed self-report questionnaires and semi-structured diagnostic interviews upon initial presentation for an outpatient eating disorders assessment at an academic medical center.

Results

The ED-15-Y demonstrated excellent reliability (internal consistency, split-half reliability) and high sensitivity to change early in treatment (change from sessions 1 to 8, adjusting for baseline score). Further, these data demonstrate that the ED-15-Y has excellent convergent validity, being highly correlated with a well-tested, longer measure of eating disorders psychopathology-the Eating Disorders Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q). These data also support good discriminant and concurrent validity, differentiating between youth without an eating disorder or with ARFID and youth with eating disorders involving weight and shape concerns (e.g., anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa).

Discussion

The ED-15-Y may be a useful tool to briefly assess eating disorder psychopathology in youth as young as 8 years old. Its sensitivity to change very early in treatment suggests that it has the potential to be used as a routine outcome measure in the context of treatment.

Objective

Outcome measurement in youth with eating disorders relies heavily on self-report, which is problematic in a population that may deny or minimize symptoms. Caregiver-report measures are lacking. This study examined the psychometric and clinical properties of a newly-developed measure designed to assess short-term change in eating disorder symptomatology as observed by caregivers-the Eating Disorder-15 for Parents/Caregivers (ED-15-P).

Method

At initial presentation to an outpatient eating disorders assessment, 206 families (primary caregiver and their child up to 18 years old) completed psychological measures.

Results

The ED-15-P demonstrated excellent reliability, preliminary evidence of discriminant and concurrent validity, and good sensitivity to change early in treatment (first 8 weeks). Agreement between primary caregivers and children on eating disorder psychopathology was moderate, while agreement between pairs of caregivers was relatively strong. Level of agreement varied across behaviors and informants, with poorer caregiver-child agreement on dieting and driven exercise.

Discussion

Agreement was stronger within caregiver pairs than caregiver-child pairs, indicating that caregivers and their children have related but unique perspectives on eating disorder symptoms, highlighting the importance of multi-informant assessment. The ED-15-P complements a parallel youth report measure to more comprehensively assess eating disorder psychopathology, with high utility for measuring change over time.

This editorial reports on an anonymous survey question posed to eating disorders researchers about changes the International Journal of Eating Disorders (IJED) should implement to support the eating disorders research community affected by COVID-19. The editorial accompanies an IJED article that details responses to the larger survey focusing more broadly on COVID-19-related research disruptions. Survey invitations were sent to editorial board members of eating disorders journals, members of eating disorder scientific organizations (e.g., Eating Disorders Research Society), and individuals who provided at least three IJED reviews in the prior 12 months. We reviewed the responses of 187 participants and identified three categories of changes that: (a) had already been implemented by the journal, (b) cannot be implemented because they fall outside the scope of IJED, or (c) will be implemented in coming weeks or months. The latter category includes publishing topical COVID-19 papers, making some COVID-19-related content available open access, revising statistical guidelines, and issuing author guidance on reporting protocol changes caused by COVID-19-related disruptions. IJED recognizes the disruptive impacts that COVID-19 has on all activities in our field, including clinical work, teaching, and advocacy, and is committed to supporting authors during this difficult time while striving to publish high-quality research.