Logo image
Back
Assessing the prevalence of and risk factors for disordered eating behaviors in adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease
Dissertation   Open access

Assessing the prevalence of and risk factors for disordered eating behaviors in adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease

Jennie David
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Jun 2019
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/dq5x-am37
pdf
David_Jennie_20191.02 MBDownloadView
PDF Open Access Open Access (License Unspecified)

Abstract

Teenagers Body image Eating disorders in adolescence Inflammatory bowel diseases Clinical Psychology Psychology
Background: Diet-related chronic health conditions (DRCHCs) are a category of diseases that include Type I Diabetes, Cystic Fibrosis, Celiac Disease, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and revolve around food, diet, and weight. IBD is an umbrella term for Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis, both of which are chronic, autoimmune conditions that primarily affect the gastrointestinal system. Although previous research has demonstrated that adolescents with DRCHCs are vulnerable to disordered eating behaviors, the prevalence and risk factors of such concerns within a pediatric IBD population has yet to be explored. This study investigated the prevalence of, and risk factors for, disordered eating behaviors in adolescents with IBD. Methods: This cross-sectional, multi-site survey study recruited via three outpatient pediatric IBD clinics in the ImproveCareNow research collaborative and ImproveCareNow social media postings. Interested pediatric patients with IBD between 12 and 22 years of age were electronically consented to the study and completed the online survey study. Survey study measures included the EDE-Q, IMPACT-III, and the RCADS-25, which assessed disordered eating behaviors, pediatric IBD-specific quality of life, and internalizing symptoms, respectively. Results: Approximately 34% of participants reported clinically significant shape concerns (i.e., discomfort with body shape) and more than 17% reported clinically significant EDE-Q total scores. No differences were found by gender between adolescents with IBD and established norms for healthy individuals. Lower body image, higher anxiety, and lower quality of life were found to significantly predict disordered eating behaviors in this population. Small effect sizes were identified for several medical variables, including diagnosis subtype, surgery history, and previous steroid use, on disordered eating behaviors. Conclusions: Over one third of the study sample endorsed clinically significant shape-related disordered eating thoughts and nearly 20% endorsed symptoms that suggest clinically significant disordered eating, consistent with findings from other DRCHCs research. These findings suggest that pediatric patients with IBD are more likely to identify concerns with thoughts related to disordered eating than disordered eating behaviors. Medical variables may be related to disordered eating thoughts and behaviors. Future research should seek to assess if these findings are replicated with a large sample size. Given the relatively high prevalence, findings suggest that clinicians and researchers should continue to assess body image concerns and disordered eating behaviors in adolescents with IBD in the medical and psychosocial care for this population.

Metrics

65 File views/ downloads
37 Record Views

Details

Logo image