Nutritional Issues for Older People and Older People with Dementia in Institutional Environments

Abstract

The main purpose of this instrumental study was to examine the factorial structure and measurement invariance of the Bulimic Investigatory Test, Edinburgh (BITE) across gender and age in a community sample of nonclinical adolescents. The sample consisted of 1,794 adolescents (50.2 % males), with a mean age of 14.7 years (SD = 1.72). The results showed that the BITE is a measurement instrument which presents adequate psychometric properties. The level of internal consistency for the Symptom subscale was .95 whereas for the Severity subscale it was .70. The analysis of the dimensionality of the BITE using exploratory factor analysis revealed a one-factor solution. In addition, the confirmatory factor analysis showed adequate fit indices for the one-factor solution. This dimensional structure of the BITE proved to be invariant across gender and age. Statistically significant differences were found as a function of age and gender when the groups were compared in the latent means. Future studies should incorporate the new advances in psychological and educational assessment pertaining to Computerized Adaptive Testing as well as examine the measurement invariance of the tests which assess bulimic symptomatology across cultures.