Date of Graduation

1995

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The Multiple Eating Antecedent Scale (MEAL) is a behavioral instrument used to measure diet nonadherence in people with diabetes mellitus. The current study was conducted to gather additional reliability and validity indicators of the MEAL. A prospective design was used to measure diet, blood glucose, stress and adherence in 38 adults with blood Type I and Type II diabetes mellitus for four consecutive days. Comparisons were made between self-monitoring data and MEAL scores. In addition MEAL category scores were compared to established diabetes-specific questionnaires as a measure of MEAL validity. Results indicated that the MEAL has good one week test-retest reliability and appears to have good convergent validity with other diabetes-specific questionnaires and some of the self-monitoring data. Diet self-monitoring data and self-reported stress were less strongly associated with MEAL scores. Implications of these findings and directions for future refinement and use of the MEAL are discussed.

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