Psychometric properties of the nine-item avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder screen (NIAS) in Turkish children

BackgroundThe nine item avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder screen (NIAS) is a short and practical assessment tool specific to ARFID with three ARFID phenotypes such as "Picky eating," "Fear," and "Appetite". This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Turkish translation of the NIAS parent form and to investigate the relationship between ARFID symptoms and anxiety, depression symptoms, and eating behaviors in a sample of Turkish children.MethodParents were asked to provide their children's sociodemographic data and to complete the NIAS, Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire-Short (EDE-QS), Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ), and Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) scales.ResultsThe sample included 440 participants between 6 and 12 ages. Turkish NIAS demonstrated good internal consistency. The three-factor model of the Turkish NIAS was in an acceptable structure. The Turkish NIAS scale was shown to be valid and reliable. NIAS scores were shown to be higher in underweight participants. The NIAS-parent version subscales showed expected convergent and divergent validity with the CEBQ, EDEQ-S, and RCADS scales in children, except CEBQ emotional overeating and desire to drink subscales were correlated with NIAS.ConclusionThe Turkish version of the NIAS is valid and reliable in evaluating ARFID symptoms in children. Assessment tools for avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), which is quite common in children, are quite limited. NIAS-parent version is a practical and valuable scale that can be used in the clinic. This study found that the Turkish version of the NIAS is valid and reliable in evaluating ARFID symptoms in children. In the psychometric properties of the Turkish NIAS, ARFID symptoms were associated with anxiety and depression symptoms and food-avoidant eating behavior. It was also found that ARFID was not associated with eating disorder symptoms. In addition, the paper shows initial data concerning the psychometric properties related to the Turkish NIAS-parent version. It is the first study to evaluate the relationship of ARFID subtypes with anxiety, depression symptoms, appetite characteristics, and BMI percentages in children.