A meta-analysis assessing reliability of the Yale Food Addiction Scale: Implications for compulsive eating and obesity

Haitham Jahrami; Waqar Husain; Khaled Trabelsi; Achraf Ammar; Seithikurippu R Pandi-Perumal; Zahra Saif; Marc N Potenza; Chung-Ying Lin; Amir H Pakpour

doi:10.1111/obr.13881

A meta-analysis assessing reliability of the Yale Food Addiction Scale: Implications for compulsive eating and obesity

Obes Rev. 2024 Dec 23:e13881. doi: 10.1111/obr.13881. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Haitham Jahrami^{1

2}, Waqar Husain³, Khaled Trabelsi^{4

5}, Achraf Ammar^{6

7}, Seithikurippu R Pandi-Perumal^{8

9}, Zahra Saif¹, Marc N Potenza¹⁰, Chung-Ying Lin¹¹, Amir H Pakpour¹²

Affiliations

¹ Government Hospitals, Manama, Bahrain.
² Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain.
³ Department of Humanities, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan.
⁴ High Institute of Sport and Physical Education of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia.
⁵ Research Laboratory: Education, Motricity, Sport and Health, EM2S, LR19JS01, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia.
⁶ Department of Training and Movement Science, Institute of Sport Science, Mainz, Germany.
⁷ Research Laboratory, Molecular Bases of Human Pathology, LR19ES13, Faculty of Medicine of Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia.
⁸ Centre for Research and Development, Chandigarh University, Mohali, Punjab, India.
⁹ Division of Research and Development, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India.
¹⁰ Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience and the Child Study Center and Wu Tsai Institute, Yale School of Medicine/Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
¹¹ Institute of Allied Health Sciences, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
¹² Department of Nursing, School of Health and Welfare, Jönköping University, Hälsohögskolan, Jönköping, Sweden.

PMID: 39715731
DOI: 10.1111/obr.13881

Abstract

Food addiction (FA) is linked to eating disorders and obesity. The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), which has various versions in different languages, is widely used to assess FA worldwide. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the YFAS through reliability generalization meta-analysis (REGEMA). From their inception until April 2024, a comprehensive systematic review across more than 30 databases was conducted to identify studies reporting reliability measures (e.g., Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega) of the YFAS. Sixty-five studies were included in this meta-analysis, with a median sample size of 451 participants. The results of the random-effects meta-analysis showed a high pooled reliability coefficient (α = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.83 to 0.86 p < 0.001). Test-retest reliability was also estimated using a random-effects meta-analysis of 10 studies, resulting in a pooled test-retest correlation coefficient of intraclass coefficients of (ICC = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.70 to 0.84, p < 0.001). These findings highlight the consistency and robustness of the YFAS in detecting FA across studies, suggesting its reliability for screening for FA-related disordered eating.

Keywords: Cronbach's alpha; food addiction; meta‐analysis; reliability.

Publication types

Review