Identification of eating disorder symptoms in Danish adolescents with the SCOFF questionnaire
Sammanfattning
Background: Eating disorders often develop in adolescence and, therefore, instruments are needed
that are useful to detect risk behaviour in young people. The SCOFF is a 5-item screening instrument,
named SCOFF as an acronym of keywords from the questions. It has been used widely in adult samples,
but studies that evaluate the scale in adolescents are missing.
Aims: The aim of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the SCOFF in adolescents aged
11–20 years and for the first time validate the questionnaire in Danish.
Methods: A total of 184 adolescents completed the Danish version of the SCOFF and sub-scales from
the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI-3). The sample consisted of 87 patients (mean age¼ 16) from a specialized
eating disorder department in the Region of Southern Denmark and 97 healthy adolescents
(mean age¼ 17) from Danish primary and high schools.
Results: It was found that the reliability of the SCOFF was acceptable, and that cut-off 2 is useful to
detect those with potential eating disorder pathology. Item 3 (weight loss) correlated poorly with
EDI-3 sub-scales and might be reformulated by addressing the intentionality behind weight loss (due
to unhappiness with body) rather than a specific amount of weight loss (1 stone), because this could
have somatic reasons.
Conclusions: The SCOFF is a very easily applicable questionnaire, which may fulfil the necessary psychometric
properties for detection of ED symptoms in Danish adolescents. Before general screening
can be recommended, conditions regarding benefits and potential adverse effects still remain to be
addressed.