Hou Xiumei, Wang Guoping, Wang Hongjun, Liu Jindong, Liu Wei, Ji Shiyun, Wang Enna, Qu Diyang, Hu Jieyi
Weihai Municipal Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, China.
Third people's Hospital of Heze City, Heze, China.
Int J Clin Health Psychol. 2022 Sep-Dec;22(3):100320. doi: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2022.100320. Epub 2022 Jul 20.
Researchers have found growing evidence for the comorbidity link between bulimia and emotional symptoms among Chinese female youth. However, the prospective effect of one on the other is still unclear. Therefore, a cross-lagged model was used to examine the possible underlying mechanism between bulimia and two typical emotional problems (i.e., anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms), respectively, in the present study.
A total of 471 female college students participated in the three waves of the present study. Self-reported questionnaires were delivered to assess their bulimia, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms.
After controlling for earlier levels of symptoms, our finding indicated that anxiety symptoms triggered more bulimia symptoms from Time 1 to Time 2. In turn, the reciprocal cycles occurred between anxiety symptoms and bulimia symptoms from Time 2 to Time 3. More interestingly, a similar pattern was found between depressive symptoms and bulimia.
The persistence and reciprocal cycle between bulimia and emotional symptoms are worthy of attention. Specifically, female youth with higher levels of emotional symptoms appear to be more profound at high risk for eating-related problems afterward. Further eating-related intervention programs may also need to take the level of female youth's emotional symptoms into consideration.
研究人员发现越来越多的证据表明，中国青年女性中暴食症与情绪症状之间存在共病联系。然而，两者之间的前瞻性影响仍不明确。因此，在本研究中，采用交叉滞后模型分别考察暴食症与两种典型情绪问题（即焦虑症状和抑郁症状）之间可能的潜在机制。
共有471名女大学生参与了本研究的三个阶段。通过发放自填式问卷来评估她们的暴食症、焦虑症状和抑郁症状。
在控制了早期症状水平后，我们的研究结果表明，从时间1到时间2，焦虑症状引发了更多的暴食症症状。反过来，从时间2到时间3，焦虑症状和暴食症症状之间出现了相互循环。更有趣的是，抑郁症状和暴食症之间也发现了类似的模式。
暴食症与情绪症状之间的持续性和相互循环值得关注。具体而言，情绪症状水平较高的青年女性随后出现饮食相关问题的风险似乎更高。进一步的饮食相关干预项目可能也需要考虑青年女性的情绪症状水平。
