Psychometric properties and factor structure of the Diabetes Eating Problem Survey Revised in Danish adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

AIM: The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Danish translation of Diabetes Eating Problem Survey - Revised (DEPS-R) among adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D).

METHODS

A total of 131 adolescents (53% women) with T1D aged 11-19 years completed DEPS-R and Youth Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (YEDE-Q). Additional anthropometric, biochemical, and medical data were obtained from medical records. Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed to examine the factor structure of DEPS-R.

RESULTS

The DEPS-R demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.87) and was significantly correlated with YEDE-Q (r = 0.83; p < 0.01), HbA1c (r = 0.35; p < 0.01), zBMI (r = 0.35; p < 0.01), and age (r = 0.20; p < 0.05), indicating high convergent validity. The median DEPS-R score was 10 [5-18] for the entire sample; however, it was significantly higher among women (15 [9-21]) than men (6 [4-10]). Factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure accounting for 58% of the variance and indicated that item 4 contributed less strongly to the overall score.

CONCLUSIONS

This study supports the validity of DEPS-R as a screening tool for detecting the risk of disordered eating in adolescents with T1D but challenges the relevance of item 4. Future research is needed on updating the original DEPS-R, including a sensitivity analysis of DEPS-R in detecting the risk of serious eating disorder-related behaviour in T1D.