Anxiety disorders predict fasting to control weight: A longitudinal large cohort study of adolescents.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To determine whether anxiety disorders are prospectively associated with fasting for weight-loss/to avoid weight-gain, a behaviour that precedes and is typical of anorexia nervosa (AN), during adolescence.

Method

Participants were 2,406 female adolescents of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Anxiety disorders were assessed when participants were aged 13-14 and 15-16; fasting was measured approximately 2 years after each anxiety assessment. Generalised estimating equation models examined whether anxiety disorders predicted later fasting, across the two longitudinal waves of data. To probe the moderating effect of time, data were stratified by wave and binary logistic regression analyses completed.

Results

Across longitudinal waves, anxiety

SUBMITTER: Lloyd EC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7192761 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature