Correlates of health related quality of life in anorexia nervosa

OBJECTIVE: We examined the association between disorder specific factors, comorbidity and health related quality of life (HRQoL) in anorexia nervosa (AN). METHOD: HRQoL was assessed using the EuroQol-5D visual analog scale (EQ-VAS) in this cross-sectional study. Three regression models were estimated to determine the association between AN subtype (restrictive vs. binge/purge), duration of the eating disorder (ED), age (adolescents vs. adults), ED pathology (EDE-Q), Body Mass Index (BMI), depressive symptoms (PHQ-9), somatic complaints (PHQ-15), anxiety (GAD-7) and EQ-VAS. RESULTS: The sample comprised 218 female AN patients (mean age = 23.3 years [SD = 8.2]; mean EQ-VAS score = 53.4 [SD = 21.4]). A lower BMI, higher levels of depressive symptoms, and somatic complaints were significantly associated with lower EQ-VAS scores. DISCUSSION: Findings of the present study suggest that BMI and comorbidity might be more relevant to HRQoL impairments in AN than age, diagnostic subtype, duration of the ED or current psychopathology.