Localization of Intuitive Eating Scale-2 and Its Application in Chinese Obese Patients with Primary Hypertension

Intuitive eating (IE) is largely considered to be engaging in behaviors consistent with eating in reaction to one’s physiological appetite and fullness signals instead of environmental stimuli and emotional cues. The Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2) was developed in order to assess the outlook and behaviors of eating on four subscales: unconditional permission to eat (UPE), eating because of physiological as opposed to emotional reasons (EPR), dependence on physiological hunger and satiety cues (RHSC), and body-food choice congruence (B-FCC). Obesity is a frequent comorbidity in Chinese patients with hypertension and nearly 3/4 of such patients have eating problems. The current study intended to validate the psychological measurement properties of the IES-2 Chinese Version (IES-2-Chi) in an obese population with hypertension. For the IES-2-Chi, Cronbach's ɑ = 0.947, split-half reliability was 0.850, the test-retest reliability was 0.889, chi-square/degree of freedom ratio (χ2/df) = 1.318, root mean square error approximation (RMSEA) = 0.040, root mean square residual (RMR) = 0.053, goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = 0.902, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.982, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.978, incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.983, and normal fit index (NFI) = 0.932. The secondary study objective was to evaluate IE levels of obese Chinese patients with hypertension. IE was correlated positively with self-efficacy, body image, and frequency of eating vegetables and fruits, but negatively with body mass index, hemoglobin, diastolic blood pressure, hematocrit, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and frequency of eating fast food. Conclusion: The current study demonstrates that the IES-2-Chi has good reliability and validity in obese patients with primary hypertension and can be used to evaluate IE levels of these patients. Based on the current study results, future studies may be designed to develop intervention strategies using IE to utilize its influential factors in obese patients with primary hypertension.