Objective and subjective bulimic episodes in the classification of bulimic-type eating disorders: Another nail in the coffin of a problematic distinction
Section snippets
Study design and participants
The research was conducted as part of the Health and Well-Being of Female ACT Residents Study, a two-phase epidemiological study of disability, health service utilization and “mental health literacy” associated with community cases of the more commonly occurring (BN-type) eating disorders (Mond et al., 2008, Mond et al., 2007a, Mond et al., 2006). The study was carried out in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) region of Australia (population 314,000 in 2002), a highly urbanized region that
Results
As can be seen in Table 1, participants in the OBEs group were heavier than those in the SBEs group. There were no significant differences between groups on any of the socio-demographic variables assessed, nor did any of these comparisons approach significance (all p > 0.10).
Table 2 shows the comparison between OBEs and SBEs groups on measures of eating disorder psychopathology (EDE-Q subscales and global score), impairment in role functioning (SF-12 PCS, MCS), general psychological distress
Summary of main findings
In a community sample of women with bulimic-type eating disorders, we identified subgroups of participants who reported regular OBEs but not SBEs and regular SBEs but not OBEs. These groups were compared on a wide range of outcomes, including socio-demographic characteristics, current levels of eating disorder psychopathology, general psychological distress and impairment in role functioning, current and lifetime occurrence of extreme weight-control behaviors, current and lifetime occurrence of
Acknowledgements
Associate Professor Mond is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Sidney Sax Fellowship. The Health and Well-Being of Female ACT Residents Study was funded by The Canberra Hospital, the ACT Department of Health and Community Care and ACT Mental Health.
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