Background & Objective(s): Food addiction (FA) is a growing problem worldwide, associated with physical and psychological dysfunction. The original Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) was developed in 2009 for diagnosis of FA. Updated long and short forms of the Scale were developed in 2016 and 2017 respectively. An Arabic version of the updated short form suiting epidemiological purposes is lacking. The study aimed to adapt and test reliability of an Arabic version of the short form modified Yale Food Addiction Scale (mYFAS 2.0) for epidemiological purposes in Arab countries.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Alexandria, Egypt from June1st to September15th 2019. The short form mYFAS 2.0 was translated into Arabic language following the WHO translation guidelines. A self-report questionnaire including both English and Arabic versions was completed by 296 Arab adults fluent in Arabic and English, interviewed at public places. Weight and height were self-reported and Body Mass Index was calculated.
Results: Kuder–Richardson alpha was 0.89 and 0.92 and Cronbach's Alpha was 0.93 and 0.94 for symptoms and the whole scale respectively. Cronbach's alpha decreased if any item was deleted. Corrected item-total correlation coefficients ranged between 0.5-0.7. These values indicate good internal consistency. Kappa coefficients ranged between 0.85-0.99 (P<0.001) indicating almost perfect agreement between Arabic and English versions of mYFAS 2.0. Food addiction rate was 17.6%.
Conclusion: The present study adapted a reliable Arabic version of mYFAS 2.0 that can be a substitute to the English version in epidemiological work. The study recommends further multi-disciplinary population studies to assess the problem, determine correlates and suggest appropriate interventions.