Correlates of weight-related quality of life among individuals with binge eating disorder before and after cognitive behavioral therapy

Abstract

Individuals with obesity and binge eating disorder (BED) report poorer weight-realted quality of life (WRQOL) compared to individuals with obesity alone. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the best available treatment for BED, does not consistently produce weight loss or improvements in weight QOL. The purpose of the current study was to examine baseline and longitudinal associations between eating-related and psychosocial variables and dimensions of weight QOL. We examined associations between predictor variables, including body mass index (BMI), eating disorder (ED) psychopathology, and psychosocial factors, in relation to three dimensions of WRQOL among 171 patients whom received CBT for BED. Participants completed interviews and self-report measures at baseline prior to CBT and at end of treatment. At baseline the following associations were significant: BMI, ED psychopathology, and self-esteem were associated with weight-related self-esteem; gender, BMI, and self-esteem were associated with weight-related public distress (i.e., stigma and worry in public because of one’s weight); and age, BMI, and ED psychopathology were associated with weight-related physical function. At end of treatment, the following associations were significant: changes in ED psychopathology and coping predicted weight-related self-esteem; changes in coping and self-esteem predicted weight-related public distress; and changes in BMI and subjective binge eating predicted weight-related physical function. Overall, changes in a number of ED and associated symptoms were associated with improvements in WRQOL.

Impact of Weight on Quality-of-Life Questionnaire-Lite, Mexican Version. Reliability and Validity Evidence

“…We found evidence for convergent validity obtaining correlations between the IWQOL-Lite subscales and BMI, in line with the results from previous studies (Acevedo & Cepeda, 2009;Bolado-García et al 2008;Kolotkin et al, 2019;Mason et al, 2017). As expected, participants with the higher BMI indicated higher IWQOL levels.…”

“…When exploring gender differences, there was a general tendency for women to report higher levels of IWQOL vs. men across all subscales, with the difference being most prominent for Self-Esteem. This association has been reported not only for the IWQOL by Kolotkin and Crosby (2002) and Mason et al (2017), but also in studies with other instruments like the Brief Stigmatizing Situations Inventory, a ten-item self-report that assesses lifetime experiences of weight-related stigma (Sattler, Deane, Tapsell, & Kelly, 2018). In Mexico, women face and internalize discrimination in different domains of life (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2017), so perceiving stronger impact of weight on quality of life adds more complexity to the structural problem of gender inequality.…”

Eating pathology and associations with long‐term changes in weight and quality of life in the longitudinal assessment of bariatric surgery study

“…This study utilized a prospective design, but it is important to note that the reported associations of post‐surgical LOC eating and global EDE score with weight and mental HRQOL do not prove a causal relationship. While there is evidence that binge eating may be a marker of quality of life impairment in adolescents with obesity (Ranzenhofer et al, ), and those changes in eating disorder‐related symptoms predict improved weight‐related quality of life following treatment for BED (Mason et al, ), the relationships between eating disorder psychopathology and, weight and HRQOL changes following weight loss treatment are not yet fully understood. It is possible that the associations are bidirectional, with eating pathology both resulting from and contributing to unfavorable weight and mental HRQOL outcome.…”

Lived experiences of subjective binge eating: An inductive thematic analysis

“…Findings suggest that binge eating serves an affect regulation function. Using EMA, Engelberg, Steiger, Gauvin, and Wonderlich (2007) and Mason et al (2017) found that momentary negative affect and dissociation predicted binge eating across the day. Building on this, Berg et al (2013) and Schaefer et al (2020) found using EMA that guilt steadily increased before and declined after episodes.…”