Quality of life in individuals with eating disorders

Quality of life is an important aspect of the assessment of medical and psychiatric disorders, such as eating disorders. Eating disorders affect both the emotional and physical wellbeing of individuals who suffer from them and presumably impact quality of life. The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of life of individuals seeking inpatient treatment for an eating disorder using the Quality of Life Inventory. This assessment is unique because it considers both the importance and satisfaction of life domains and it is also very comprehensive, assessing 16 life domains both quantitatively and qualitatively. This is the first study to report on the use of the Quality of Life Inventory in an eating disorder sample. It was hypothesized that patients with eating disorders would have significantly worse quality of life than non-clinical groups and similar quality of life compared to other clinically impaired groups. This hypothesis was confirmed. It was also predicted that individuals with anorexia and bulimia nervosa would have statistically equivalent quality of life global scores but differences on domain scores, and this was confirmed as well. Finally, it was hypothesized that treatment history, number of co-morbid disorders, body mass index, and eating disorder symptoms would be related to quality of life, which was not supported. These results contribute to the literature about quality of life of individuals with eating disorders by supporting existing findings based on other quality of life measures and add information about life domains not previously assessed by other measures.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology (UMKC)

Grantor

University of Missouri--Kansas City

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Pollack, Lauren Olivia

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lundgren, Jennifer D.

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10355/35309

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/35309