Prevalence of eating disorders among pregnant women and its relation to anxiety and depression

Abstract

The Eating Disorders (EDs) are considered psychiatric disorders characterized by serious and persistent food guidelines, involves excessive concern with weight and body shape, which are held in strict diets or use of inappropriate methods to achieve the idealized body. The current scientific literature can not accurately establish the prevalence of ED in pregnant women, but it is suggested that it is less common than in the general population, with approximately 1% in pregnant women and in the general population is estimated between 3.5 and 7%. Among pregnancy some pregnant women can present changes in habitual dietary pattern, as desire and aversion to certain foods, but in some women these changes can result in eating disorders. Psychological factors, such as mood and anxiety disorders, are also associated to EDs and are related to the preoccupation of bodily changes and possible weight gain and can lead to decreased food intake, non-adherence to prenatal and obstetric complications. Considering the consequences of an ED during pregnancy and the difficulties in establishing the differential diagnosis, it is justified to further studies aimed at determining the prevalence of ED during pregnancy, as well as assist in performing diagnosis and treatment for these women. In addition, there isn´t described in the literature the association between pregnant women with ED and anxiety and depression, which reinforces the importance of this study. Objectives: describe the eating attitudes and ED diagnoses among pregnant women; present the incidence of ED and correlate with the presence of anxiety and depression among pregnant women. Method: the sample consists of 1,562 women who are waiting medical attention in the first prenatal consultation at the clinic of the Division of Obstetrics University Hospital. Initially they will read the informed consent term, after acceptance to participate in the study, will be held a semi structured interview, and then asked the woman to answer the following instruments: Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Disorders (SCID), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD); The Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders (PRIME-MD). Data collection will be conducted by the performer researcher and trained researchers. For the qualitative analysis of the answers of the interview will be used the technique of content analysis. Quantitative data will be analyzed using SPSS for windows version 16.0. Will be adopted as the level of significance at 0.05 (alpha = 5%), thus descriptive levels (p) below this value are considered significant (p <0.05). (AU)