Abstract
In diabetes mellitus, eating disorders are associated with an increased rate of complications and subsequent illness. For this reason eating disorders should be diagnosed at an early stage of the illness. Consequently, we developed and evaluated a self administered screening instrument especially for this target group based on emotional and behavioural items. The sample consists of 400 female inpatients of a diabetes centre with a diagnosis of diabetes and of 30 female inpatients of a psychosomatic clinic without a diagnosis of diabetes and with a diagnosis of eating disorders. A factor analysis under inclusion of all the 45 items of the questionnaire reveals seven dimensions. Cut-off-points allow a separation of patients with eating disorders from those with normal eating behaviour. The sensitivity of the final scale amounts to 93%, the specificity to 74%. We recommend to use the questionnaire as a screening instrument for eating disorders in diabetic patients.
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