The Sick, Control, One, Fat, Food (SCOFF) questionnaire was developed in the United Kingdom by Morgan and colleagues in 1999, as a quick, patient self-report, consisting of five questions to screen for eating disorders.  The SCOFF was designed for use by professionals and non-professionals alike and can be used in primary health care settings. The SCOFF was developed in the United Kingdom but it’s been adapted for use in the United States and has German, Finnish, Spanish, and Japanese translations.

The SCOFF has some research studies that support its use for screening a population, but is not sufficient to make a diagnosis. Some studies have shown the questionnaire to have both high sensitivity and specificity in identifying eating disorders. In general two or more questions would be considered a positive screening, and warrants further questioning and a more comprehensive assessment.

References

Morgan, J., Reid, F. and Lacey, J. (1999). The SCOFF questionnaire: assessment of a new screening tool for eating disorders. BMJ, 319(7223), pp.1467-1468.

Botella, J., Sepúlveda, A., Huang, H. and Gambara, H. (2013). A Meta-Analysis of the Diagnostic Accuracy of the SCOFF. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 16.

Perry, L., Morgan, J., Reid, F., Brunton, J., O’Brien, A., Luck, A. and Lacey, H. (2002). Screening for symptoms of eating disorders: Reliability of the SCOFF screening tool with written compared to oral delivery. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 32(4), pp.466-472.

Solmi, F., Hatch, S., Hotopf, M., Treasure, J. and Micali, N. (2014). Validation of the SCOFF questionnaire for eating disorders in a multiethnic general population sample. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 48(3), pp.312-316.