Psychometric Evaluation of the Eating Disorder-15 (ED-15): Factor Structure, Measurement Invariance, and Eating Disorder Caseness in Treatment Seekers.

Authors

Jamie-Lee Pennesi, Laura Edney, Yuan Zhou, David L Hegarty, Benjamin Buchanan, Tracey D Wade

Published in

The International journal of eating disorders. Sep 04, 2026. Epub Sep 04, 2026.

Abstract

This study examines the factor structure, measurement invariance, and discriminative ability of the Eating Disorder-15 (ED-15) questionnaire in a large transdiagnostic clinical population of treatment-seeking adults.
The sample consisted of 2015 participants aged 17-79 (M_age = 30.73 years; 77.0% women; 71.1% in Australia) seeking mental health treatment across different settings of routine clinical practice. After initial completion of the ED-15, subsamples completed additional measures within ±365 days of the initial ED-15 and/or repeated the ED-15 at least 7 days later.
Confirmatory factor analysis supported both the hypothesized two-factor and a bi-factor model (with a general factor), with the two-factor model retained as the preferred structure, consistent with theory and prior research. The ED-15 also demonstrated strong internal consistency and test-retest reliability. In subsamples, there was preliminary evidence of measurement invariance across gender, time, country, and to a lesser extent age group. Correlations supported good concurrent validity with eating disorder pathology and eating-related impairment, while convergent validity was mixed, with moderate associations with psychological distress and maladaptive perfectionism, but weak or negligible associations with personal standards perfectionism and autism-related traits. Receiver operating characteristic analyses deriving an optimal diagnostic cut-off indicated good discriminative validity, with the ED-15 discriminating probable eating disorder caseness.
Findings add to the growing evidence on the ED-15's latent structure and provide preliminary support for measurement invariance, supporting its use as a brief, psychometrically sound tool in routine clinical practice. Future research should evaluate its intended use for session-by-session monitoring of eating disorder symptom change.

PMID:
42693789
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 04 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.