Table 1.
BED item numbers, corresponding interview questions, and scoring
| Item no. | Interview question | Possible response (frequency) |
|---|---|---|
| 1* | Have you ever had eating binges when you ate what most people would describe as an unusually large amount of food in a short time? | (0) No (814) (1) Yes (207) |
| 2 | When you were bingeing the most, how many binges would you have in a month? | (0) 0–1 (44) (1) 2–7 (99) (2) ≥8 (64) |
| 3 | When you were having eating binges, did you feel that your eating was out of control? | (0) Not at all (33) (1) Slightly (26) (2) Somewhat (65) (3) Very much (61) (4) Extremely (44) |
| 4 | For how long did you have binge-eating episodes? | (0) Less than one month (62) (1) 1 to 2 months (19) (2) 3 months to 5 months (14) (3) 6 months to 1 year (40) (4) Longer than one year (68) |
| 5 | How upset or distressed did binge eating usually make you feel? | (0) Not at all (20) (1) Slightly (21) (2) Moderately (50) (3) Very much (66) (4) Extremely (53) |
| Item 6 is the total of the following items, which began with the stem: ‘During eating binges, did you …’ | ||
| Eat much more rapidly than usual? | (0) No (83) (1) Yes (118) |
|
| Eat until you felt uncomfortably full? | (0) No (26) (1) Yes (179) |
|
| Eat large amounts of food when you didn’t feel physically hungry? | (0) No (34) (1) Yes (170) |
|
| Eat alone because you were embarrassed by how much you were eating? | (0) No (93) (1) Yes (109) |
|
| Feel disgusted with yourself, depressed, or very guilty after overeating? | (0) No (30) (1) Yes (172) |
|
| Item 7 is the total of the following items, which began with the stem: ‘Have you ever done or used the following during a time when you were binge eating? | ||
| Make yourself vomit | (0) No (38) (1) Yes (171) |
|
| Laxatives | (0) No (56) (1) Yes (154) |
|
| Diuretics (water pills) | (0) No (40) (1) Yes (169) |
|
| Diet pills (over the counter or prescription) | (0) No (94) (1) Yes (118) |
|
| Exercise more than 2 hours per day | (0) No (39) (1) Yes (169) |
|
| Fast or not eat (for 24 hours or more) | (0) No (53) (1) Yes (155) |
|
*
If participants indicated that they had never binged, they skipped to the next section of the questionnaire.