Comparison of interview to questionnaire for assessment of eating disorders after bariatric surgery

The Eating Disorder Examination Interview Bariatric Surgery Version (EDE-BSV) assesses eating pathology after bariatric surgery but requires significant training and time to administer. Con-sequently, we developed a questionnaire format called the Eating Disorders After Bariatric Surgery Questionnaire (EDABS-Q). This study evaluates the consistency of responsiveness between the two formats. After surgery, 30 patients completed the EDE-BSV and EDABS-Q in a restricted randomized design. Patient reported behavior for each item which was converted to a score following the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q) scoring scheme. Responses fell into three distributions: (1) dichotomous, (2) ordinal, or (3) unimodal. Distributions of items were not different between the two formats and order did not influence response. Tests of agreement (normal approximation of the binomial test) and association (χ2 analyses on binary data and spearman rank order correlations on ordinal items) were performed. Percent concordance was high across items (63–100%). Agreement was significant in 31 of 41 items (Bonferroni-P<0.001). Association was significant in 10 of 21 in χ2–appropriate items (Bonferroni-P <0.002), and the ordinal items had highly significant correlations between formats (Bonferroni-P < 0.0125). The EDABS-Q is an adequate substitute for the EDE-BSV and may be useful for research and clinical evaluation of eating pathology after bariatric surgery.