Assessment of patients with anorexia nervosa: Interview versus self-report

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Abstract
Objective The current study compared the agreement between the Eating Disorders Examination (EDE) and the Eating Disorders Examination‐Questionnaire (EDE‐Q) in the diagnosis and assessment of eating disorder pathology in a sample of women with anorexia nervosa. Method First, a physician administered a clinical interview to each patient. Then, before hospital admission, all subjects were given the EDE‐Q and the EDE interview. Results Results indicate that agreement between the EDE and the EDE‐Q on the individual items informing the overall diagnosis of anorexia nervosa ranges from low to moderate. Agreement for the overall diagnosis of anorexia nervosa and for the binge/purge subtype was more impressive. Although correlations between subscale scores as well as eating disorder behaviors were strong, higher levels of disturbance were consistently reported on the EDE‐Q than on the EDE interview. Discussion The pattern of findings suggests that the EDE‐Q may be used in place of the interviewer‐based measure when assessing overall diagnosis and subtype, as well as specific, well‐defined features (vomiting/laxative use). However, there was a low level of agreement with respect to less‐defined features, like binge eating, for which significantly higher frequencies were generated by the self‐report questionnaire. © 2005 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.