Psychometric properties of the Expanded Exercise Addiction Inventory 3 (EAI-3) in a Danish sample

Granziol, U, Lichtenstein, MB, Baldanzini, G, Ozer, ZG, Griffiths, MD ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8880-6524 and Szabo, A, 2026. Psychometric properties of the Expanded Exercise Addiction Inventory 3 (EAI-3) in a Danish sample. Current Psychology, 45 (5): 544. ISSN 1046-1310

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Abstract

The risk of exercise addiction, characterized by an uncontrollable urge to engage in physical activity, poses significant health risks yet lacks clinical diagnostic criteria. The need for its assessment is increasing in research and applied settings. The present study evaluated the psychometric properties and reliability of the Expanded Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI-3) within a Danish population. The present study involved 392 Danish adults who were all regular exercisers. Participants completed the EAI-3, the Exercise Dependence Scale-Revised (EDS-R), the SCOFF Questionnaire for eating disorders, the Obsessive–Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R), and the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and measurement invariance testing were performed to assess the factor structure and reliability of the EAI-3 across biological sex. The results indicated strong reliability and validity for the EAI-3, with good fit indices across models (CFI = .981, RMSEA = .054). The scale scores demonstrated configural, metric, and scalar invariance, indicating consistent performance across male and female exercisers. Reliability analyses yielded high internal consistency (α = .85, ω = .88), and ROC analysis established a cut-off score of 33.5 for potential exercise addiction risk, with high specificity (.856) and sensitivity (.889). Similar good results emerged from the bifactor model, but the original structure was still preferable. The present study supports the EAI-3 as a valid and reliable tool for screening the risk of exercise addiction among Danish adults, facilitating early identification and potential intervention. Further research should focus on longitudinal studies and clinical validations to enhance the understanding and management of exercise addiction.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Current Psychology
Creators:	Granziol, U., Lichtenstein, M.B., Baldanzini, G., Ozer, Z.G., Griffiths, M.D. and Szabo, A.
Publisher:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date:	March 2026
Volume:	45
Number:	5
ISSN:	1046-1310
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1007/s12144-026-09136-z DOI 2578379 Other
Rights:	© The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Melissa Cornwell
Date Added:	19 Feb 2026 12:29
Last Modified:	19 Feb 2026 12:29
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/55304

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