Rationale: The prevalence of psychological disorders is increasing in the Arab region suffering from political and economic crisis. The objective of this study was to validate the Dutch eating behavior questionnaire (DEBQ) in Arabic and to assess factors related to eating behaviors in a sample of Lebanese adults in a private Lebanese institution. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on Notre Dame University-Louaize students. A background questionnaire and the translated Arabic version of the Dutch eating behavior questionnaire (AR-DEBQ) were administered. Participants were invited to the nutrition laboratory to gather anthropometric data. The validation of AR-DEBQ was performed by exploratory factor analysis. Furthermore, statistical analysis was carried out to assess the factors associated with eating behaviors. Results: A total of 389 students with a mean age 20.5 ±2.0 years participated in the study. The Arabic DEBQ questionnaire consisted of 18 questions. The rotation component matrix showed three components with loads >0.479; “Emotional eating”, “Restrained eating” and “External eating”. Cronbach alpha was measured for the three components of the AR-DEBQ and showed a good level of internal consistency for our scale (0.907, 0.811 and 0.508 respectively). Gender, alcohol and diet were significantly associated with different DEBQ components (p < 0.001, 0.041 and < 0.001, respectively). Conclusion: The Arabic DEBQ is an effective tool for measuring behavioral factors related to individual eating patterns, including those implicated in eating disorders. Further research should be taken into consideration in order to establish the structure of DEBQ in different samples and determine whether the current findings can be ascribed to dissimilarities in culture.

Ghadieh, R., Merhi, S., Aoun, A., Galusca, B., Farhat, A., Ibrahim, M., & Doumit, J. (2020). Validation of the arabic version of Dutch eating behavior questionnaire (DEBQ) and associated factors: A cross-sectional study in a sample of Lebanese adults. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN, 40, 607–608. http://10.0.3.248/j.clnesp.2020.09.603

https://clinicalnutritionespen.com/article/S2405-4577(20)30791-9/fulltext