Eating Disorders concern a growing number of people. Several instruments were created to assess symptomatology of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa. Our aim is to create and validate a short questionnaire about all the eating symptoms of Eating Disorders, including Binge Eating Disorder.

The Questionnaire of Eating Behaviours (Scheda dei Comportamenti Alimentari, SCA) is a self-administered questionnaire composed of 13 items regarding all the eating symptoms of Eating Disorders. Items are divided into 3 scales: Restrictive Eating, Weight Control Practices and Binge Eating. The SCA was given to 200 female outpatients with Eating Disorders and to 218 non-clinical adult women. Student's t test was performed to compare clinical and non-clinical subjects, one-way ANOVA was performed to compare three diagnostic subtypes (Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder). Cronbach's Alpha and factor analysis were used to validate the questionnaire.

Clinical and non-clinical subjects get significantly different scores in all the three subscales. Besides, the three diagnostic subtypes scores significantly differ on each scale. Cronbach's Alpha values show a significant inner consistency in the subscales of Restrictive Eating and Binge Eating, while the Weight Control Practices one is not very homogeneous, as expected. The factor analysis has shown the presence of three factors, corresponding to the 3 scales.

The SCA has shown to be effective in distinguishing people with Eating Disorders from non-clinical subjects. For its characteristics of being short, easy to fill in and to interpret, the SCA seems to be an instrument suitable for screening purposes.