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Accuracy of reported weight and menstrual status in teenage girls with eating disorders
Author(s) -
Swenne Ingemar,
Belfrage Erik,
Thurfjell Barbro,
Engström Ingemar
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/eat.20199
Subject(s) - eating disorders , anorexia nervosa , bulimia nervosa , psychology , psychiatry , menstruation , disordered eating , pediatrics , medicine , clinical psychology
Abstract Objective The current study investigated the accuracy of reported current and historical weights and of menstrual status in teenage girls with eating disorders. Method Reported current weight in one interview was compared with measured weight at another occasion. Reported historical weights were compared with documented weights from growth charts of the school health services. Reports of menstrual status from two different interviews were compared. Results The overall correlation between reported and measured/documented weight was high. Current weight was reported with high accuracy in all diagnostic groups and without tendencies to underreport. Patients with bulimia nervosa, but not those with anorexia nervosa, underreported their historical top weight. The most common reason for large discrepancies between reported and documented historical weights was that the two weights compared referred to different time points. The reports on menstrual status were divergent for 13% of the patients, most notably 4 of 15 patients on oral contraceptives had been categorized as having menstruations in one of the interviews. Conclusion Reported weight history and menstrual status are of high accuracy in teenage girls with eating disorders. © 2005 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.