Horndasch Stefanie, Heinrich Hartmut, Kratz Oliver, Mai Sandra, Graap Holmer, Moll Gunther H
Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Schwabachanlage 6/10, 91054, Erlangen, Germany.
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2015 Dec;265(8):677-87. doi: 10.1007/s00406-015-0603-3. Epub 2015 May 22.
Body image disturbance in anorexia nervosa (AN) has been widely studied with regard to the patient's own body, but little is known about perception of or attitude towards other women's bodies in AN. The aim of the present study was to investigate how 20 girls aged 12-18 years and 19 adult women suffering from AN compared to 37 healthy adolescent girls and women estimate weight and attractiveness of women's bodies belonging to different BMI categories (BMI 13.8-61.3 kg/m²). Weight and attractiveness ratings of the participant's own body and information on physical comparisons were obtained, and effects on others' weight and attractiveness ratings investigated. Differential evaluation processes were found: AN patients estimated other women's weight higher than control participants. Patients showed a bias towards assessing extremely underweight women as more attractive and normal weight and overweight women as less attractive than healthy girls and women. These effects were more pronounced in adult than in adolescent AN patients. The tendency to engage in physical comparison with others significantly correlated with weight as well as attractiveness ratings in patients. A logistic regression model encompassing own attractiveness ratings, attractiveness bias towards strongly underweight others' bodies and the interaction of this bias with age as predictors differentiated best between AN patients and controls. Our results indicate that females suffering from AN and healthy girls and women perceive other women's bodies differently. Assessment of others' weight and attractiveness may contribute to the maintenance of dysfunctional physical comparison processes.
关于神经性厌食症（AN）患者自身身体的身体意象障碍已得到广泛研究，但对于AN患者对其他女性身体的认知或态度却知之甚少。本研究的目的是调查20名12至18岁的女孩和19名成年女性AN患者与37名健康的青少年女孩和女性相比，如何评估属于不同BMI类别（BMI 13.8 - 61.3kg/m²）的女性身体的体重和吸引力。获取了参与者对自身身体的体重和吸引力评分以及身体比较信息，并研究了其对他人体重和吸引力评分的影响。发现了不同的评估过程：AN患者对其他女性体重的估计高于对照组参与者。与健康女孩和女性相比，患者表现出一种偏见，即认为极度体重过轻的女性更具吸引力，而正常体重和超重女性则吸引力较低。这些影响在成年AN患者中比在青少年AN患者中更为明显。患者与他人进行身体比较的倾向与体重以及吸引力评分显著相关。一个包含自身吸引力评分、对体重过轻他人身体的吸引力偏见以及该偏见与年龄的相互作用作为预测因素的逻辑回归模型，在区分AN患者和对照组方面表现最佳。我们的结果表明，患有AN的女性与健康女孩和女性对其他女性身体的认知不同。对他人体重和吸引力的评估可能有助于维持功能失调的身体比较过程。
