Abstract
Purpose:
The objective was to examine how body image affects quality of life in an eating-disorder (ED) clinical sample, a non-ED clinical sample, and a nonclinical sample. We hypothesized that ED patients would show the worst body image quality of life. We also hypothesized that body image quality of life would have a stronger negative association with specific ED-related variables than with other psychological and psychopathological variables, mainly among ED patients. On the basis of previous studies, the influence of gender on the results was explored, too.
Patients and methods:
The final sample comprised 70 ED patients (mean age 22.65 ± 7.76 years; 59 women and 11 men); 106 were patients with other psychiatric disorders (mean age 28.20 ± 6.52; 67 women and 39 men), and 135 were university students (mean age 21.57 ± 2.58; 81 women and 54 men), with no psychiatric history. After having obtained informed consent, the following questionnaires were administered: Body Image Quality of Life Inventory-Spanish version (BIQLI-SP), Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (EDI-2), Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ), Self-Esteem Scale (SES), and Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R).
Results:
The ED patients’ ratings on the BIQLI-SP were the lowest and negatively scored (BIQLI-SP means: +20.18, +5.14, and −6.18, in the student group, the non-ED patient group, and the ED group, respectively). The effect of body image on quality of life was more negative in the ED group in all items of the BIQLI-SP. Body image quality of life was negatively associated with specific ED-related variables, more than with other psychological and psychopathological variables, but not especially among ED patients.
Conclusion:
Body image quality of life was affected not only by specific pathologies related to body image disturbances, but also by other psychopathological syndromes. Nevertheless, the greatest effect was related to ED, and seemed to be more negative among men. This finding is the opposite of that found in other groups studied previously.
Acknowledgements
We hereby state that it is an original publication, and the manuscript has not been previously submitted or published elsewhere. IJL carried out the literature research and wrote the manuscript, PBR provided critical input and corrections for the outline and writing of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
We acknowledge the support of the EDUBSI (Eating Disorders Unit of the Behavior Sciences Institute), which supported the preparation of this manuscript. Especially, thanks to Sabine Bergmann for her technical support.
Disclosure
The authors state that there are no conflicts of interest. This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or non-profit sectors.