Poster Presentation Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society Annual Scientific Meeting 2016

Prevalence of Disordered Eating Psychopathology in Women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Pilot. (#136)

Sigal Dudaee-Faass 1 , Robyn A Barnes 1 , Jeff R Flack 1 2 3
  1. Diabetes Centre, Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, Bankstown, NSW, Australia
  2. Faculty of Medicine, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  3. School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Background:
Prevalence rates of Disordered Eating Psychopathology (DEP) in women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) are yet to be reported in published literature to the investigators’ knowledge.
Aim:
To determine the occurrence of DEP in GDM women attending our Clinic.
Methods:
Women with GDM, diagnosed by Australasian Diabetes In Pregnancy Society 1998 Criteria(1), referred for management in the GDM Clinic were approached and screened at their initial visit for English literacy using the Single Item Literacy Screener(2). Those literate in English were invited to participate. DEP was assessed using the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q)(3,4). This well validated self-report measure assesses specific psychopathology and key behaviours of eating disorders including: binge eating, self-induced vomiting, laxative misuse, excessive exercising and dietary restriction undertaken in the last 28 days. EDE-Q subscale scores ≥4 are considered to be in the extreme range (3). An empirically derived Global Score threshold ≥ 2.3 has been found to be an indicator of eating disturbances (5).
Results:
Of 74 women invited, 53 of 72 (73.6%) English literate women agreed to participate and completed the EDE-Q. Patient characteristics were mean(+SD)[range] age 32.6+5.2 [19-42] years, diagnosed at 23+5.1 [14-32] weeks gestation, with pre-pregnancy BMI 27.3+7.1 [15.8-53.6] kg/m2. Individuals who scored in the extreme range are presented in Table 1a[n= (%)]. Analysis of responses to questions about key behaviours demonstrated that several individuals experienced a regular occurrence of behaviours consistent with DEP in the last 28 days (see Table 1b). A total of 20.4% admitted to objective bulaemic episodes.

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Conclusions:
This study found that there was a subset of women who displayed EDE-Q Scores indicative of eating disturbances, and a number who regularly engaged in key behavioural features of eating disorders during their pregnancy. These findings indicate a need to further assess such behaviours in a larger study.

Acknowledgements:
We thank the women with GDM who participated and completed the questionnaire.

 

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