Correlates of health related quality of life in anorexia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE

We examined the association between disorder specific factors, comorbidity and health related quality of life (HRQoL) in anorexia nervosa (AN).

METHOD

HRQoL was assessed using the EuroQol-5D visual analog scale (EQ-VAS) in this cross-sectional study. Three regression models were estimated to determine the association between AN subtype (restrictive vs. binge/purge), duration of the eating disorder (ED), age (adolescents vs. adults), ED pathology (EDE-Q), Body Mass Index (BMI), depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), somatic complaints (PHQ-15), anxiety (GAD-7) and EQ-VAS.

RESULTS

The sample comprised 218 female AN patients (mean age = 23.3 years [SD = 8.2]; mean EQ-VAS score = 53.4 [SD = 21.4]). A lower BMI, higher levels of depressive symptoms, and somatic complaints were significantly associated with lower EQ-VAS scores.

DISCUSSION

Findings of the present study suggest that BMI and comorbidity might be more relevant to HRQoL impairments in AN than age, diagnostic subtype, duration of the ED or current psychopathology. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2016; 49:630-634).