Development of the Modified Yale Food Addiction Scale Version 2.0

Abstract

The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) operationalizes indicators of addictive-like eating, originally based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria for substance-use disorders. The YFAS has multiple adaptations, including a briefer scale (mYFAS). Recently, the YFAS 2.0 was developed to reflect changes to diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5. The current study developed a briefer version of the YFAS 2.0 (mYFAS 2.0) using the participant sample from the YFAS 2.0 validation paper (n = 536). Then, in an independent sample recruited from Mechanical Turk, 213 participants completed the mYFAS 2.0, YFAS 2.0, and measures of eating-related constructs in order to evaluate the psychometric properties of the mYFAS 2.0, relative to the YFAS 2.0. The mYFAS 2.0 and YFAS 2.0 performed similarly on indexes of reliability, convergent validity with related constructs (e.g. weight cycling), discriminant validity with distinct measures (e.g. dietary restraint) and incremental validity evidenced by associations with frequency of binge eating beyond a measure of disinhibited eating. The mYFAS 2.0 may be an appropriate choice for studies prioritizing specificity when assessing for addictive-like eating or when a briefer measurement of food addiction is needed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.

Keywords: addiction; eating disorders; food addiction; obesity; substance-use disorders.