Scale Development Study: Hedonistic Eating Scale

Abstract

Aim: Obesity is a condition where genetic, behavioral and environmental factors are found together. The study was performed in order to develop the “Hedonistic Eating Scale (HES)” for the determination of the hedonistic eating habits levels of individuals with obesity. Methods: The study was performed with a methodological design. The study was carried out in Gaziantep University Hospital's obesity outpatient clinic between April and June 2018. Context, structural, criterion validity and internal consistency reliability and test-retest validity-reliability analysis were performed. The statistical meaningfulness level in all tests was determined as p<0.05. Results: As a result of context validity, factor analysis and item analysis, a 15 item scale with one component was obtained. In the scale, the variance amount explained by the one component was on good level (68.02%). The fact that all of the Cronbach alpha, Spearman-Brown and Guttman internal consistency coefficient of the scale are above 0.70. When the test retest reliability coefficients of the whole scale were examined, the scale was found to present consistent results in different applications and the scale was found to be reliable with regard to the constancy coefficient. Conclusion: The “Hedonistic Eating Scale (HES)”, which was just added to literature, is a valid and reliable tool that can be used to evaluate hedonistic eating habits levels in individuals with obesity.