Psychometric Properties of the Clinical Impairment Assessment: Norms for Young Adult Women

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the initial psychometric properties and to establish norms for the Clinical Impairment Assessment (CIA v. 3.0) among a nonclinical sample of young adult women.

Method: The CIA is a brief, 16-item self-report measure designed to assess psychosocial impairment due to eating disorder features over the past 28 days. We administered the CIA and the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q v. 6.0) to 438 university women (mean age = 25 years).

Results: Participants' mean global CIA score was 6.4 (SD = 7.5; range 0-40). Acceptable levels of internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.94) and 1-week test-retest reliability were observed. Significant correlations were found between the CIA and the EDE-Q total and subscale scores (Spearman rhos = 0.58-0.79), indicating that greater levels of impairment were associated with higher levels of eating disorder psychopathology.

Discussion: Results demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties of the CIA among a sample of young adult women, suggesting the utility of the CIA to measure impairment due to eating disorder features in nonclinical samples.