Quality of life assessment for patients with eating disorders

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validity of Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)-quality of life for patients with eating disorders in relation to the following instruments: Body Awareness Scale Health, (BAS-H) and its Interview Scale for Body Ego (ISBE), Eating Disturbances Scale (EDS-5), Body Attitude Test (BAT) and Comprehensive Body Examination (CBE), part of respiration, subscale 1. In total 87 individuals were examined: 26 patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), 20 patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) and 41 patients with eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS). The highest significant correlations (0,43-0,61) were found between VAS-quality of life and BAS-H (subscale grounding), variables of EDS-5 (feeling of control and guilt), BAT (subscale 2) and CBE (breathing variables). In conclusion, this study indicated that VAS-quality of life seemed to more accurately capture mental and psychosomatic factors than physical and health-related factors.