Low Overlap and High Heterogeneity Across Common Measures of Eating Disorder Pathology: A Content Analysis

Background: This study evaluated symptoms assessed in common measures of eating disorder pathology and tested overlap to evaluate the extent to which measures may be interchangeable. Methods: Six measures were included: Bulimia Test-Revised (Thelen et al., 1991), Eating Attitudes Test-26 (Garner et al., 1982), Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (Stice et al., 2004), Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire (Fairburn & Beglin, 1994), Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory (Forbush et al., 2013), and Questionnaire for Eating Disorder Diagnoses (Mintz et al., 1997). Content overlap was quantitatively estimated using the Jaccard Index. Results: Mean overlap was low (.195), likely due to the wide range of symptoms (87) assessed. The mean overlap of each measure with all others was .117 - .267, and the overlap among individual measures was .083 - .382. Conclusions: Implications of low overlap among measures include variable characterization of eating disorder phenotypes and the risk for lower generalizability of findings due to measurement variability.