Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:53:52.521Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Shared and unique risk factors between lifetime purging and objective binge eating: a twin study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2008

T. D. Wade*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Flinders University, South Australia, Australia
S. Treloar
Affiliation:
Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Joint Genetics Program, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
N. G. Martin
Affiliation:
Queensland Institute of Medical Research and Joint Genetics Program, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
*
*Address for correspondence: Associate Professor T. D. Wade, School of Psychology, Flinders University, PO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia. (Email: tracey.wade@flinders.edu.au)

Abstract

Background

Objective binge eating (OBE) and self-induced vomiting (SIV) occur and co-occur across a range of eating disorders but the extent to which the risk factors for these two behaviours overlap is unclear. Examination of this overlap was the focus of the current report.

Method

A population of female Australian twins (n=1002), mean age 35 years (s.d.=2.11, range 28–40), participated in three waves of data collection and were assessed for lifetime disordered eating with a semi-structured interview at wave 3 and a self-report questionnaire at wave 1; risk factors were assessed via self-report at waves 1 and 3.

Results

Non-shared environmental influences were the largest contributor to the variance of both OBE and SIV, with a more modest contribution of genetic influences. Between 5% and 14% of the environmental risk factors for OBE and SIV were shared and 27–100% of genetic risk factors were shared. SIV initiation was predicted by higher neuroticism and novelty seeking and lower maternal and paternal care, whilst lower levels of perceived paternal care, higher lifetime BMI, and a wider BMI range predicted OBE initiation. Retrospective correlates associated with both SIV and OBE onset were parental comments about weight, whilst higher levels of parental conflict, expectations and criticism was associated with OBE onset only.

Conclusions

The substantial extent of non-overlap between risk factors for SIV and OBE suggests that each of these behavioural disturbances warrants future investigation in its own right, not only when they occur in conjunction with each other.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akaike, H (1987). Factor analysis and AIC. Psychometrika 52, 317332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, WJ, Bryson, L, Byles, JE, Dobson, AJ, Lee, C, Mishra, G, Schofield, M (1998). Women's Health Australia: recruitment for a national longitudinal cohort study. Women and Health 28, 2340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bushnell, JA, Wells, JE, Hornblow, AR, Oakley-Browne, MA, Joyce, P (1990). Prevalence of three bulimia syndromes in the general population. Psychological Medicine 20, 671680.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cloninger, CR, Pryzbeck, TR, Svrakic, DM (1991). The tri-dimensional personality questionnaire: U.S. normative data. Psychological Reports 9, 10471057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davison, KK, Francis, LA, Birch, LL (2005). Re-examining obesigenic families: parents' obesity-related behaviors predict girls' change in BMI. Obesity Research 13, 19801990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaves, LJ, Eysenck, HJ, Martin, NG, Jardine, R, Heath, AC, Feingold, L, Young, PA, Kendler, KS (1989). Genes, Culture and Personality: An Empirical Approach. Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
Engstrom, I, Norring, C (2001). Risk for binge eating in a nonclinical Swedish adolescent sample: a repeated measure study. European Eating Disorder Review 9, 427441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eysenck, HJ, Eysenck, SBG, Barrett, P (1985). A revised version of the Psychoticism scale. Personality and Individual Differences 6, 2129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairburn, CG, Cooper, Z (1993). The Eating Disorder Examination, 12th edn. In Binge Eating: Nature, Assessment and Treatment (ed. Fairburn, C. G. and Wilson, G. T.), pp. 317360. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Fairburn, CG, Welch, SL, Doll, HA, Davies, BA, O'Connor, ME (1997). Risk factors for bulimia nervosa: a community-based case-control study. Archives of General Psychiatry 54, 509517.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Field, AE, Colditz, GA, Herzog, DB, Heatherton, TF (1996). Disordered eating: can women accurately recall their binging and purging behaviours 10 years later? Obesity Research 4, 153159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frost, RO, Marten, P, Lahart, C, Rosenblate, R (1990). The dimensions of perfectionism. Cognitive Therapy and Research 14, 449468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galloway, AT, Fiorito, LM, Francis, LA, Birch, LL (2006). ‘Finish your soup’: Counterproductive effects of pressuring children to eat on intake and affect. Appetite 46, 318323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hay, P (2003). Quality of life and bulimic eating disorder behaviours: findings from a community-based sample. International Journal of Eating Disorders 33, 434442.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heath, AC, Cloninger, CR, Martin, NG (1994). Testing a model for the genetic structure of personality: a comparison of the personality systems of Cloninger and Eysenck. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 4, 762775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heath, AC, Howells, W, Kirk, KM, Madden, PAF, Bucholz, KK, Nelson, EC, Slutske, WS, Statham, DJ, Martin, NG (2001). Predictors of non-response to a questionnaire survey of a volunteer twin panel: Findings from the Australian 1989 twin cohort. Twin Research 4, 7380.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hudson, JI, Hiripi, E, Pope, HG, Kessler, RC (2007). The prevalence and correlates of eating disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Biological Psychiatry 61, 348358.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jacobi, C, Hayward, C, de Zwaan, M, Kraemer, HC, Agras, WS (2004). Coming to terms with risk factors for eating disorders: application of risk terminology and suggestions for a general taxonomy. Psychological Bulletin 130, 1965.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS (2001). Twin studies of psychiatric illness: an update. Archives of General Psychiatry 58, 10051014.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kendler, KS, Baker, JH (2007). Genetic influences on measures of the environment: a systematic review. Psychological Medicine 37, 615626.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Little, RJA, Rubin, DB (1987). Statistical Analysis with Missing Data. Wiley & Son: New York.Google Scholar
Maes, HHM, Neale, MC, Eaves, LJ (1997). Genetic and environmental factors in relative body weight and human adiposity. Behaviour Genetics 27, 325351.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moos, RH (1974). Family Environment Scale. Consulting Psychologists Press: Palo Alto, CA.Google Scholar
Neale, MC (1997). Mx: Statistical Modeling, 2nd edn.Medical College of Virginia, Department of Psychiatry: Richmond, VA.Google Scholar
Parker, G, Tupling, H, Brown, LB (1979). A parental bonding instrument. British Journal of Medical Psychology 52, 110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reba, L, Thornton, L, Tozzi, F, Klump, KL, Brandt, H, Crawford, S, Crow, S, Fichter, MM, Halmi, KA, Johnson, C, Kaplan, AS, Keel, P, LaVia, M, Mitchell, JE, Strober, M, Woodside, DB, Rotondo, A, Berrettini, WH, Kaye, WH, Bulik, CM (2005). Relationships between features associated with vomiting in purging-type eating disorders. International Journal of Eating Disorders 38, 287294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stice, E, Presnell, K, Spangler, D (2002). Risk factors for binge eating onset in adolescent girls: a 2-year prospective investigation. Health Psychology 21, 131138.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Striegel-Moore, RH, Dohm, FA, Kraemer, HC, Schreiber, GB, Taylor, CB, Daniels, SR (2007). Risk factors for binge-eating disorders: an exploratory study. International Journal of Eating Disorders 40, 481487.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sullivan, PF, Bulik, CM, Kendler, KS (1998). Genetic epidemiology of binging and vomiting. British Journal of Psychiatry 173, 7579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Todd, AL, Boyce, PM, Heath, AC, Martin, NG (1994). Shortened version of the interpersonal sensitivity measure, parental bonding instrument and intimate bond measure. Personality and Individual Differences 16, 323329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, TD, Bergin, JL, Martin, NG, Gillespie, NA, Fairburn, CG (2006 a). A transdiagnostic approach to understanding eating disorders: a twin study examining a dimensional model. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 194, 510517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, TD, Bergin, JL, Tiggemann, M, Bulik, CM, Fairburn, CG (2006 b). Prevalence and long-term course of lifetime eating disorders in an adult Australian twin cohort. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 40, 121128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, TD, Bulik, CM, Sullivan, PF, Neale, MC, Kendler, KS (2000). The relation between risk factors for binge-eating and bulimia nervosa: a population-based twin study. Health Psychology 19, 115123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, TD, Crosby, RD, Martin, NG (2006 c). Use of latent profile analysis to identify eating disorder phenotypes in an adult Australian twin cohort. Archives of General Psychiatry 63, 13771384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, TD, Tiggemann, M, Abraham, S, Heath, A, Treloar, SA, Martin, N (1996). The structure of disordered eating in a female twin population. International Journal of Eating Disorders 19, 6371.3.0.CO;2-U>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wade, TD, Tiggeman, M, Martin, NG, Heath, A (1997). Characteristics of interview refusers: women who decline to participate in interviews relating to eating. International Journal of Eating Disorders 22, 9599.3.0.CO;2-H>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woodside, DB, Garfinkel, PE (1992). Age of onset in eating disorders. International Journal of Eating Disorders 12, 3136.3.0.CO;2-S>CrossRefGoogle Scholar