Arabic REAP-S Validation Gives Arabic-Speaking Clinicians a Short Dietary Screening Tool
Dietary screening in young adults often gets pushed aside because routine visits are crowded with more immediate concerns. This preprint addresses that gap by validating an Arabic version of the Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants – Shortened Version (REAP-S), a brief instrument designed to capture dietary behavior quickly and with minimal burden.
The work matters because a tool can only be useful if it performs well in the language and culture where it will be used. Here, investigators translated and culturally adapted the instrument for Arabic-speaking young adults and then tested whether the items hung together as a coherent measure rather than a loose set of nutrition questions.
Psychometric Testing in 490 Saudi Nursing Students
The validation study enrolled 500 undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students from Saudi universities during the 2025–2026 academic year, and analyses included 490 participants. Median age was 20 years, with an interquartile range of 19–22, and 54.1% were female.
Participants completed the Arabic REAP-S online after the instrument underwent standardized forward-backward translation and cross-cultural adaptation. The design was cross-sectional and methodological, which is appropriate for evaluating whether a translated questionnaire preserves the structure of the original measure.
The assessment went beyond a simple translation check. Confirmatory factor analysis examined whether the Arabic version retained the expected one-factor structure, while Rasch Measurement Theory tested item fit, response category behavior, person-item targeting, and reliability. Internal consistency was also assessed with Cronbach’s alpha and the Rasch Person Separation Index.
Model Fit Was Strong and the Scale Held Together
The confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized one-factor model. Fit indices were favorable: CFI 0.984, TLI 0.978, RMSEA 0.076, and SRMR 0.061. Standardized factor loadings ranged from 0.429 to 0.768, suggesting that the items contributed to the overall construct at different strengths but still aligned with the same underlying dietary behavior domain.
Internal consistency was good, with Cronbach’s α of 0.863. In practical terms, that level of reliability suggests the items move together in a way that makes the scale suitable for screening rather than for exhaustive nutritional diagnosis.
The Rasch findings were equally important because they add a different lens on the same instrument. The analysis supported unidimensionality, meaning the questionnaire behaved as a measure of one construct instead of several competing dimensions. Person reliability was satisfactory, with EAP 0.872 and WLE 0.848.
One sentence captures the statistical bottom line: the Arabic REAP-S performed like a stable screening instrument, not a fragile translation.
Item Behavior Stayed Within Acceptable Limits
Item-level diagnostics did not raise major concerns. All items showed acceptable infit and outfit mean square statistics, with infit ranging from 0.826 to 1.311 and outfit from 0.866 to 1.283. Response thresholds were ordered, which means participants used the response categories in a logical progression rather than in a confusing or collapsed pattern.
Adequate person-item targeting also emerged from the Rasch analysis. In plain clinical terms, the scale appears to fit the population reasonably well, allowing it to distinguish among different levels of dietary behavior in Arabic-speaking young adults.
That matters in daily practice because a screening tool loses value if it is too easy, too difficult, or too blunt for the people being assessed. Here, the instrument appears to sit close enough to the target group to pick up variation that can guide nutritional conversation.
Why This Matters for Nursing, Prevention, and Community Practice
The authors positioned the Arabic REAP-S as a brief, practical tool for nurses and other healthcare professionals who need a fast way to screen dietary behavior. That fits the reality of outpatient care, student health services, community programs, and preventive nursing workflows, where time is limited and nutrition counseling often begins with a short intake instrument.
The clinical value lies in early identification. A dependable screening questionnaire can flag young adults whose eating patterns may place them at nutritional risk before those habits harden into longer-term metabolic problems. In a population such as university students, where diet may be shaped by schedule, cost, stress, and independence from family meal patterns, a concise tool has obvious utility.
The study also speaks to a broader measurement problem in global health research. Instruments developed in one language can lose precision when moved elsewhere unless they are translated carefully and tested against psychometric standards. By combining confirmatory factor analysis with Rasch measurement theory, this project offered two separate checks on the same conclusion: the Arabic REAP-S is structurally sound and clinically usable for screening purposes.
Limits of the Evidence Remain Tied to the Design
This remains a preprint and has not undergone peer review, so its findings should be read as promising but still provisional. The sample also came from nursing students, a group that may not fully represent all Arabic-speaking young adults, especially those outside university settings or outside Saudi Arabia.
The study design was cross-sectional, which means it tested measurement performance at a single point in time rather than tracking whether the scale predicts later dietary change or health outcomes. No longitudinal data show how the Arabic REAP-S performs after repeated use in clinics, student health programs, or community screening campaigns.
Even so, the data support a clear and useful conclusion: the Arabic REAP-S appears ready for further validation work and practical testing in real-world Arabic-speaking settings where brief dietary screening is needed.