Muscle dysmorphia subscale of eating disorder assessment for men: validity and reliability of the Portuguese version in men across multiple ages

Introduction Although symptom presentation varies by gender, almost all eating disorder/ED instruments have been developed and validated on females. The Eating Disorder Assessment for Men (EDAM; Stanford & Lemberg 2012) is a male specific self-report measure, composed of four sub-scales, proved to be useful to assess gender differences in ED presentations (Nagata et al. 2021). The MD comprises 5 items about the overwhelming concern with muscularity and the false perception of having an underdeveloped body. Objectives Having already valid measures of body image and eating behaviors in men, we now aim to analyze the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of MD, in order to have a quick and rigorous measure of this specific construct. Methods Participants were 227 male individuals (mean age=30.41 years±13.96; range: 14-73 years). They answered an online survey including the preliminary DM and the Portuguese validated versions of the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q7) and the Body Image Concern Inventory (BICI). Results Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that the unidimensional model presented good fit indexes (χ2/df=.6829; RMSEA=.0000; CFI=1.00 TLI=1.01, GFI=.995). Cronbach’s alfa was .891; all the items contributed to the internal consistency and had high internal validity. Pearson correlations of DM with EDE-Q7 and BICI were significant (p