Associations between eating disorder diagnoses, behaviors, and menstrual dysfunction in a clinical sample

Maria Giulia Martini; Francesca Solmi; Isabel Krug; Andreas Karwautz; Gudrun Wagner; Fernando Fernandez-Aranda; Janet Treasure; Nadia Micali

doi:10.1007/s00737-015-0576-2

Associations between eating disorder diagnoses, behaviors, and menstrual dysfunction in a clinical sample

Arch Womens Ment Health. 2016 Jun;19(3):553-7. doi: 10.1007/s00737-015-0576-2. Epub 2015 Sep 23.

Authors

Maria Giulia Martini^{1

2}, Francesca Solmi³, Isabel Krug⁴, Andreas Karwautz⁵, Gudrun Wagner⁵, Fernando Fernandez-Aranda⁶, Janet Treasure⁷, Nadia Micali^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Child Health, Behavioral and Brain Sciences Unit, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, WC1N 1EH, London, UK. m.martini@ucl.ac.uk.
² Psychiatric Unit, United Hospitals of Ancona and Academic Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Polytechnic University of Marche, via Conca 71, Ancona, Italy. m.martini@ucl.ac.uk.
³ Department of Applied Health Research, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London, WC1E 7HB, UK.
⁴ School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
⁵ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Bellvitge-IDIBELL and CIBER Fisiopatología Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBERobn), Barcelona, Spain.
⁷ Eating Disorders Research Unit, Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.
⁸ Institute of Child Health, Behavioral and Brain Sciences Unit, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, WC1N 1EH, London, UK.
⁹ Dept. of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.

PMID: 26399871
DOI: 10.1007/s00737-015-0576-2

Abstract

We explored associations between lifetime eating disorder (ED) diagnoses and behaviors and menstrual dysfunction using logistic regression models. Body mass index (BMI) fully explained differences in the odds of secondary amenorrhea (SA) across diagnoses. Women with dieting behaviors had borderline significantly higher odds of SA than those without after accounting for BMI. We suggest the presence of a strong association between BMI and SA and that dieting might represent a risk factor for SA regardless of BMI and ED diagnosis.

Keywords: Amenorrhea; Body mass index; Dieting; Eating disorders; Menstrual dysfunctions.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Amenorrhea / epidemiology*
Body Mass Index
Europe / epidemiology
Feeding and Eating Disorders / diagnosis*
Feeding and Eating Disorders / epidemiology
Feeding and Eating Disorders / psychology
Female
Health Behavior*
Humans
Logistic Models
Menstruation Disturbances / epidemiology*
Menstruation Disturbances / psychology
Oligomenorrhea / epidemiology*
Prevalence
Young Adult