Validation of the Garaulet Emotional Intake Questionnaire in students of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia

• Published in: Nutrición hospitalaria : organo oficial de la Sociedad Española de Nutrición Parenteral y Enteral Vol. 42; no. 1; p. 80
• Main Authors: Ayala Carrascal, Gabriel José, Blanco Bustos, María Paula, López Rodríguez, Laura Valentina, Villa Garzón, Andrés Sebastián, Cortés Vásquez, Jonathan Alexander, Mockus, Ismena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Spain 21.04.2025
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Colombia - epidemiology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Eating - psychology; Emotions; Feeding and Eating Disorders - epidemiology; Feeding and Eating Disorders - psychology; Feeding Behavior - psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Reproducibility of Results; Students - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Universities; Young Adult; Colombia; Encuestas y cuestionarios. Trastornos alimentarios y de la ingestión de alimentos. Emociones. Estudio de validación
• ISSN: 0212-1611; 1699-5198; 1699-5198
• DOI: 10.20960/nh.05188

Introduction: the emotional state influences the selection of foods that an individual consumes. In Colombia, no tool allows to detect the people most susceptible to develop emotional intake. Objective: to validate the Emotional Intake Questionnaire-Garaulet in a student population of the National University of Colombia. Methods: a cross-sectional descriptive observational study was conducted with a convenience sample of students in all the University's campuses in two stages employing the Spanish and the Colombian questionnaires through e-mail. Two questions were included in the survey, to assess the emotions of sadness and anxiety; a linearity relationship was established with the cut-off scores to maintain proportionality and preserve the dimensions of the study phenomenon. Results: in phase 1, 1177 subjects participated, and in phase 2, 831 subjects participated. Of these, 63.6 % and 52.8 % were emotional and very emotional eaters in the Colombian and Spanish versions, respectively. Taking the total amount of people, 22.3 % were emotional and very emotional eaters with body mass index > 25 kg/m². In addition, 4.7 % had an eating disorder and 14.2 % had a psychiatric disorder. Finally, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 99.0 %, 49.3 %, 89.9 % and 91.2 %, respectively. Conclusions: the Colombian version of the Emotional Eating Questionnaire demonstrates acceptable validity and reliability compared to the Spanish version. A high prevalence of emotional eaters was observed in the university population, which could be detected early through the use of this questionnaire. Suffering from this disorder is a risk factor for developing obesity and other metabolic diseases in the future.