TY - JOUR
T1 - Screening instruments for eating disorders in pregnancy
T2 - Current evidence, challenges, and future directions
AU - Dörsam, Annica Franziska
AU - Bye, Amanda
AU - Graf, Johanna
AU - Howard, Louise M.
AU - Throm, Jana Katharina
AU - Müller, Mitho
AU - Wallwiener, Stephanie
AU - Zipfel, Stephan
AU - Micali, Nadia
AU - Giel, Katrin Elisabeth
N1 - Funding Information:
Part of this work was supported by a grant from the Fortune program by the Medical Faculty Tübingen (project no. F1292064). Annica Franziska Dörsam receives a grant from the Cusanuswerk eV. The Mind:Pregnancy study was funded by a grant from the Innovation Fund Germany (grant number 01NVF17034). The WENDY study is independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under the Programme Grants for Applied Research programme (ESMI Programme: grant reference RP‐PG‐1210‐12002) and the NIHR/Wellcome Trust King's Clinical Research Facility and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre and Dementia Unit at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London. Louise M. Howard also had salary support from an NIHR Research Professorship (NIHR‐RP‐R3‐12‐011) and is now an NIHR Senior Investigator. The authors also want to take the opportunity to thank the WENDY study team and the women who participated in this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. International Journal of Eating Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Pregnancy is a vulnerable period for eating disorder (ED) occurrence and maternal EDs are associated with heightened risk of adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes. This highlights the need to identify pregnant women with past or current EDs in order to offer appropriate support. However, there is a knowledge and practice gap on screening pregnant women for EDs. Clinical guidance is lacking in international treatment guidelines, which is unsurprising given that no validated ED screening tool specifically designed for use in antenatal populations exists. Moreover, data on the effectiveness of general population screening tools for identifying EDs in pregnant women are scarce. This article provides a synthesis of current evidence, treatment guidelines, and data on the diagnostic accuracy for screening for EDs in antenatal samples from three studies with different screening approaches. We outline recommendations for future steps to tackle the knowledge and practice gap on screening for EDs in pregnant women, including next steps for the development of a pregnancy-specific ED screener and the use of general mental health screeners to detect EDs during pregnancy. Up-to-date, the jury is still out as how to best identify current or past EDs in pregnancy. More research is needed to assess the efficacy of using general mental health screeners versus ED-specific screening instruments to detect ED in pregnancy. Additionally, clinicians have to be trained on how to assess and manage EDs during pregnancy. Public Significance: Identifying pregnant women with eating disorders (EDs) is a public health concern which can be addressed using multiple approaches, including implementation of general and specific assessments within routine antenatal care, and training of healthcare professionals.
AB - Pregnancy is a vulnerable period for eating disorder (ED) occurrence and maternal EDs are associated with heightened risk of adverse pregnancy and infant outcomes. This highlights the need to identify pregnant women with past or current EDs in order to offer appropriate support. However, there is a knowledge and practice gap on screening pregnant women for EDs. Clinical guidance is lacking in international treatment guidelines, which is unsurprising given that no validated ED screening tool specifically designed for use in antenatal populations exists. Moreover, data on the effectiveness of general population screening tools for identifying EDs in pregnant women are scarce. This article provides a synthesis of current evidence, treatment guidelines, and data on the diagnostic accuracy for screening for EDs in antenatal samples from three studies with different screening approaches. We outline recommendations for future steps to tackle the knowledge and practice gap on screening for EDs in pregnant women, including next steps for the development of a pregnancy-specific ED screener and the use of general mental health screeners to detect EDs during pregnancy. Up-to-date, the jury is still out as how to best identify current or past EDs in pregnancy. More research is needed to assess the efficacy of using general mental health screeners versus ED-specific screening instruments to detect ED in pregnancy. Additionally, clinicians have to be trained on how to assess and manage EDs during pregnancy. Public Significance: Identifying pregnant women with eating disorders (EDs) is a public health concern which can be addressed using multiple approaches, including implementation of general and specific assessments within routine antenatal care, and training of healthcare professionals.
KW - detection
KW - eating disorders
KW - identification
KW - pregnancy
KW - screening
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85134502519&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/eat.23780
DO - 10.1002/eat.23780
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85134502519
SN - 0276-3478
VL - 55
SP - 1208
EP - 1218
JO - International Journal of Eating Disorders
JF - International Journal of Eating Disorders
IS - 9
ER -
