• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.155-175
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• 1998

The purpose of this study was to test a reliability and validity of the Korean version of Eating Attitudes Test-26(KEAT-26). Using multi-stage sampling, we finally got 3,496 subjects(1422 males and 2074 females) who were available for analysis from target 4,400 Korean adults over 18 in the nationwide areas of9 kus, 10 middle or small cities, and 17 kuns. We tried to make T score norm of the KEAT-26 as a cutoff score and STEN score norm as a index of severity for disordered eating behaviors. For the male group, Cronhach's internal consistency was .83 and Spearman-Brown split half correlation coefficiency was .75. For the female group, each of them was .81 and .75, and .81, .75 for the grand total group respectively. Validity test was performed by construct validation analysis. By a iterated principal axis factoring, 4 factors were extracted. There were some differences in the factors of the KEAT-26 by sex. In the male group, factor I was 'self-control of eating and bulimic symptom', factor II was 'food preoccupation and dieting', factor III was 'preoccupation with being thinner', factor N was 'avoidance of sweet foods'. In contrast with the male group, factor I was 'self-control of eating and bulimic symptom', factor II was 'preoccupation with being thinner', factor III was 'food preoccupation' and factor N was 'dieting' in the female group. We used T score 65 as a cutoff score. T score 65 corresponded to raw score 19 in the male group, 22 in the female group and 21 in the grand total group. Severity of disordered eating behaviors was measured by a STEN score. In the male group, each of the score range of 0-10, 11-14, 15-18, 19-22 and over 23 represented the degree of none, subclinical, manifest, moderate and severe severity respectively. Each of the score range of 0-13, 14-17, 18-21, 22-26 and over 27 in the female group, and the score range of 0-12, 13-16, 17-20, 21-25 and over 26 in the grand total group also represented the same degree of severity as like in the male group. These results support that KEAT-26 is a reliable and valid scale for evaluating disordered eating behaviors and eating problems.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.87-102
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• 1999

Objectives : The purposes of this study were to estimate the prevalence rate of eating disorders in Korean males and to clarify their characteristics in sociodemograhic data, the eating traits, and general psychopathology through the comparison with those of female high scored group on the Korean version of Eating Attitudes Test-26(KEAT-26). Methods : Using a multi-stage questionnaire sampling method including area sampling, proportionated stratified sampling, and quota sampling, we surveyed a total of 4,400 Korean adults over 18 in a nationwide area(9 kus, 10 middle or small cities, and 17 kuns), obtaining usable responses on 3,896. Of the 3,062 subjects(1249 males and 1813 females) who were available for analysis, we ascertained 52 males and 208 females who had high score($\geq$ cutoff point 21) on the KEAT-26. Results : 1) The proportion of this high score group was 1.7% in male and 6.8% in female with a sex ratio(male versus female) of 1 : 4. 2) The mean age was higher in the male group than in the female group, although it was not statistically significant(p=0.0514). Mean Body Mass Index(BMI) of the male group was significantly higher than that of female group, and the number of male subjects with below 20 of BMI was also significantly lower than in the female group. 3) There were no significant difference in past history of physical illness between two groups. However, frequency of smoking and alcohol use, and mean amount of alcohol consumption per month were significantly higher in the male group than in the female group. There were no significant differences between the two groups on various socio-demographic correlates such as economic status, total duration of education, number of family, marital status, religious status, and area of residence, but the exception of being occupational status. 4) The 'Eating Habits Scale' score and score of 'preference for vegetables and fish, and dislike for sweet-tasting food' of the male group were significantly lower than those of the female group. Although there was no significant difference between the two groups in total scores of the KEAT-26, the mean score on 'pursuit of thinness' subscale was higher in the female group than in the male group, while scores of 'food preoccupation' and 'self-control' subscales were higher in the male group than in the female group. 5) Scores on 'psychoticism' was significantly higher in the male group than in the female group, although there were no significant differences between the two groups on 'locus of control for weight', 'depression' and 'hypochondriasis'. Conclusion : These results support a possibility of a high prevalence of eating disorders in Korean males. These results suggest that eating related characteristics of high scorer on the EAT are different by sex in spite of the same high score on the EAT, and also suggest that male patients with eating disorders have more serious personality pathology than female patients with eating disorders.

• Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.153-163
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• 2001

This study was attempted to investigate the discriminant validity of Korean version of Eating Attitude Test-26(KEAT-26) and to provide the sensitivity, specificity and efficiency according to cutting score, which may be useful to determine the optimal cutoff point on various purposes. The KEAT-26 was administered to 108 female patients with eating disorders, 179 female participants in body slimming center, 120 female athletic college students, 227 female college students, and 183 healthy normal women. Validity was tested by ANOVA and ROC curve analysis. The results revealed that the total score of the KEAT-26 showed a statistically significance between groups and that the score of the KEAT-26 of eating disorders group was significantly higher than that of the other groups in post hoc test. In comparison of the 4 subfactor score of the KEAT-26 between groups, significant differences in main effect within groups were found in all subfactors except factor IV. ROC curve analysis showed 80% of efficiency to discriminate eating disorders group from normal control group using cutoff score on maximum discriminant efficiency and 69% of efficiency to discriminate eating disorders group from high risk groups for eating disorders. Each cutoff score on maximum in efficiency was as follows ; 25 between eating disorders group and participants in body slimming center, 19 between eating disorders group and healthy normal woman, 23 between eating disorders group and athletic college students, 21 between eating disorders group and college students. Using 22(T score 65) of the KEAT-26 as the cutoff score, sensitivity was 54%, specificity was 84%, and overall efficiency was 80%. These results indicate that the KEAT-26 has a good discriminant validity in Korean population and also suggest that the KEAT-26 may be useful assessment tool to screen the disordered eating problems on clinical and epidemiological purposes.