The Chinese Version of the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 Adapted for Pregnant Women: Psychometric Properties and Associations With Diet Quality

Abstract

Background

Pregnancy is a special period that is strongly influenced by dietary interventions, and many pregnant women develop gestational diabetes caused by conditions such as poor diet. Eating behavior interventions for women during this period are therefore very important, but unfortunately, there is a lack of established studies on intuitive eating in pregnant women.

Methods

This study examined the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the IES-2 scale adopted in a group of pregnant women, as well as the relationship between intuitive eating characteristics and dietary quality. A total of 581 pregnant women completed the study which included the Intuitive Eating Scale (IES-2), the Depressive Symptom Scale (EPDS), the Anxiety Symptom Scale (SAS), the Parenthood Stress Scale (PPS), and The Dietary Guidelines Adherence Index for Pregnant Women during Pregnancy (CDGCI-PW).

Results

The results show that the modified scales have good quality in the Chinese pregnant women population (CMIN/DF = 1.756, CFI = 0.925, TLI = 0.909, RMSEA = 0.037) and that the scale scores are correlated with depression and anxiety of pregnant women and correlated with overall diet quality during pregnancy.

Conclusions

The final six factors (avoiding forbidden foods, avoiding emotional eating, body.food choice congruence, avoiding food-related coping strategies, permission to eat, and reliance on hunger and satiety cues) structure of the revised IES-2 was confirmed. Moreover, the higher the intuitive diet, the better the quality of the pregnant woman's diet will be. This scale can further assess eating behaviors in different pregnancy states within the Chinese pregnant women population.