The short inventory of grazing (SIG): development and validation of a new brief measure of a common eating behaviour with a compulsive dimension.

BACKGROUND

Grazing, the repetitious and unplanned eating of small amounts of food with or without a sense of loss of control (LOC), is an eating pattern of recent interest which is highly prevalent in eating disorders and obesity. The current study aimed to (1) assess psychometric properties of a short inventory of grazing (SIG), consisting of a "grazing in general" item and a "compulsive/LOC grazing" item and (2) examine associations between compulsive and non-compulsive grazing and body mass index (BMI), eating disorder psychopathology, distress and health-related quality of life.

METHODS

Participants recruited from a university and the community (

RESULTS

The SIG demonstrated appropriate psychometric properties. Results indicated that both grazing in general and low-frequency LOC grazing are common; however, LOC grazing of moderate-severe frequency and/or associated with marked distress is unusual. Frequency of LOC grazing, but not grazing in general, was significantly associated with higher BMI, psychological distress, compensatory behaviours and lower mental health-related quality of life. The presence of compulsive grazing was also associated with eating disorder caseness and binge-type eating disorder diagnostic groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Results support the positioning of "compulsive" LOC grazing on a continuum of problematic eating. The SIG is a parsimonious measure of this eating pattern of emergent interest.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The study was approved by the University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval Number: 2017/096), and online written informed consent was obtained from all participants.Not applicable.AIH has no competing interests. PH receives/has received sessional fees and lecture fees from the Australian Medical Council, Therapeutic Guidelines publication, and HETI New South Wales and royalties/honoraria from Hogrefe and Huber, McGraw Hill Education, and Blackwell Scientific Publications, Biomed Central and PlosMedicine and she has received research grants from the NHMRC and ARC. She is Deputy Chair of the Steering Committee of the National Eating Disorders Collaboration in Australia (2012-) and Member of the ICD-11 Working Group for Eating Disorders (2012-) and was Chair Clinical Practice Guidelines Project Working Group (Eating Disorders) of RANZCP (2012–2015). In July 2017, she provided a commissioned report for Shire Pharmaceuticals on lisdexamfetamine and binge eating disorder (BED) and has received funding form Shire to attend and present at meetings on BED. She is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Eating Disorders. ST has received royalties from Hogrefe and Huber, McGraw Hill Education and Routledge for the publication of books/chapters. He is the Chair of the Shire (Australian) BED Advisory Committee and has provided commissioned reports, received travel grants, grant funding, travel grants and honoraria from Shire Pharmaceuticals, and is a consultant to WW International. He is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Eating Disorders.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.