The prevalence and impact of trauma history in eating disorder patients

Figures & data

Table 1 Types and prevalence of traumatic events (TEs) in eating disorder patients (N=4,524)

	n	% of total	% of TEs
Accident or natural disaster	77	1.7	9.1
Natural disaster (11), fire or explosion (7), transportation accident (43), accident at home or work (16)
Physical assault	179	4.0	21.2
Physical assault (163), assault with weapon (16)
Sexual trauma	284	6.3	33.7
Sexual assault (244), unwanted sexual experience (40)
Death or illness	163	3.6	19.3
Life-threatening illness or injury (71), sudden violent death (14), sudden death of someone close (78)
Others	140	3.1	16.6
Combat/war zone (7), captivity (2), serious injury caused to someone else (1), other (130)
	843	18.6	100.0

Note: No reported TE (n=3,606, 79.7%), not regarded as TE (n=75, 1.7%). TEs categorized in accordance with trauma types in The Life Events Checklist.

Fig. 1 Distribution of traumatic event (TE) types among patients with a reported TE (n=843) in eating disorder (ED) subgroups.

Note. Percentages next to legends indicate proportion of patients in respective diagnostic subgroup with a reported traumatic event.

Table 2 Multivariate analysis of effect of trauma on eating disorder symptomatology (EDE-Q) in eating disorder patients (N=4,481)

	M (SD)		df	F	${\eta }_p^2$
Multivariate analysis			4, 4,476	17.05***	0.02
Univariate analyses	Trauma (n=827)	No trauma (n=3,654)
Restraint	3.71 (1.64)	3.54 (1.61)	1, 4,479	8.05**	0.00
Eating concern	3.51 (1.26)	3.20 (1.35)	1, 4,479	35.80***	0.01
Shape concern	4.98 (1.14)	4.58 (1.39)	1, 4,479	60.97***	0.01
Weight concern	4.33 (1.28)	3.92 (1.43)	1, 4,479	57.04***	0.01

***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01.

Table 3 Multivariate analysis of effect of trauma on psychiatric comorbidity (CPRS-S-A) in eating disorder patients (N=4,486)

	M (SD)		df	F	${\eta }_p^2$
Multivariate analysis			3, 4,482	50.23***	0.03
Univariate analyses	Trauma (n=826)	No trauma (n=3,660)
Depressive symptoms	12.27 (4.79)	10.50 (4.81)	1, 4,484	92.33***	0.02
Anxiety	11.22 (4.34)	9.21 (4.28)	1, 4,484	148.46***	0.03
Compulsion	10.49 (4.28)	8.95 (4.37)	1, 4,484	84.45***	0.02

*** p < 0.001.