Cross-cultural Adaptation and Validation of the French Version of the Athletic Disordered Eating Scale (ADE) (ADE-Fr)

May 29, 2026 updated by: Joffrey DRIGNY, University Hospital, Caen

Assessing disordered eating is crucial in athlete health monitoring. However, existing tools are not tailored to athletes' specific needs.

In 2024, Buckley et al. developed the Athletic Disordered Eating (ADE) scale, a 17-item tool validated through athlete interviews and expert review. ADE is the first screening tool for athletes using both classical psychometrics and item response theory. Recent studies confirm its effectiveness in diverse athlete populations.

With approval from Prof. Regina Belski, we aim to validate a French version (ADE-Fr) through cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric analysis, including adolescent athletes (15+). We hypothesize that ADE-Fr will retain the original structure with strong validity and reliability.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

229

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • France
    • Basse-Normandie
      • Caen, Basse-Normandie, France, 14000
        • CHU Caen Normandy

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients aged 15 to 70 years
  • Patients who engage in more than 6 hours of sports per week
  • Patients who have answered all questions on the questionnaire
  • Patients undergoing an eating behavior assessment as part of sports medical monitoring
  • For minors, this applies to those under regulatory medical surveillance.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Unfilled or incomplete questionnaires
  • Participants who did not receive the information sheet

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Athletes
Patients attending a sports medicine consultation as part of sports medicine follow-up care, medical fitness certificate, or club follow-up.
Diagnostic test: The French version of the Athletic Disordered Eating (ADE-Fr) Scale
Participants will complete the French version of the Athletic Disordered Eating (ADE-Fr) scale, alongside standard evaluations including the Eating Attitudes Test-26 for criterion validity.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The Athletic Disordered Eating (ADE) Scale (French version, ADE-Fr)
Time Frame: At enrollment, single time point
The ADE scale consists of 17 items, each with five response options: never (0), rarely (1), sometimes (2), often (3), and always (4). The total score reflects the level of disordered eating (DE) risk: minimal or none (<25), moderate (25-32), high (33-44), and very high (≥45).
At enrollment, single time point

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26)
Time Frame: At enrollment, single time point
The EAT-26 screens for eating disorder risk by evaluating attitudes, feelings, and behaviors related to eating. It includes 26 self-report questions on general eating habits and 5 additional questions on risky behaviors.
At enrollment, single time point
Type of sport
Time Frame: At enrollment, single time point
The type of sport practiced as the main sport
At enrollment, single time point
Volume of sport
Time Frame: At enrollment, single time point
The amount or volume (hours per week) of sport practiced weekly
At enrollment, single time point
Test-retest reliability for the Athletic Disordered Eating (ADE) Scale (French version, ADE-Fr)
Time Frame: Two measurements at a 5-day interval
The reproducibility of the scale will be tested in a subgroup of 25 participants to assess the consistency of the results over time.
Two measurements at a 5-day interval

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University Hospital, Caen

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 1, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 12, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 29, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

June 1, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 1, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 29, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • ADE-Fr

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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