Abstract P014: Disordered Eating And Cardiometabolic Risks In Chinese Women: The China Health And Nutrition Survey
Authors: Baiyu Qi, Ruyue Zhang, Shuyang Yao, Laura M Thornton, Annie Green Howard, Penny Gordon-larsen, Shufa Du, Huijun Wang, Bing Zhang, Cynthia M Bulik, Kari E North, Melissa A Munn-Chernoff
Journal: Circulation (2022)

Background: Disordered eating is associated with elevated cardiometabolic risks, yet most studies have been conducted in clinical settings with small European-ancestry samples. We investigated disordered eating and cardiometabolic risks in a large population-based sample of women in China. Methods: Participants included 1,999 Chinese women (aged 18-50 years) from the 2015 wave of the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Assessment for general disordered eating was via the SCOFF screener. Additional questions from the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire were included to assess three disordered eating characteristics (i.e., restraint, shape concern, and weight concern). Ten cardiometabolic risk factors (i.e., body mass index [BMI], waist circumference/height ratio [WHR], systolic blood pressure [SBP], diastolic blood pressure [DBP], HbA1c, glucose, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol [HDL-C], low-density cholesterol, and triglycerides [TG]) were measured by trained staff or with automatic biochemistry analyzer. Generalized linear models were used to examine associations between general disordered eating and each disordered eating characteristic with all 10 cardiometabolic risk factors. Poisson regression models were conducted to examine associations between general disordered eating and each disordered eating characteristic with the total number of cardiometabolic risk factors. We adjusted for potential confounders (age, urbanization index, education level, and alcohol use) and dependencies between individuals in the same household and community in regression models. A significance level of p &lt;0.05 was used in all analyses. Results: General disordered eating was significantly associated with higher BMI ( p =.0040), WHR ( p =.0205), and lower HDL-C ( p =.0065). For specific disordered eating characteristics, a higher restraint score was significantly associated with higher BMI ( p =.0383). A higher shape concern score was significantly associated with higher BMI ( p &lt;.0001), WHR ( p &lt;.0001), SBP ( p= .0013), DBP ( p= .0006), TG ( p= .0438), and lower HDL-C ( p= .0002). A higher weight concern score was significantly associated with higher BMI ( p &lt;.0001), WHR ( p &lt;.0001), SBP ( p= .0098), DBP ( p= .0066), HbA1c ( p= .0428), glucose ( p= .0410), TG ( p= .0144), and lower HDL-C ( p &lt;.0001). Overall, higher shape and weight concern scores were associated with more cardiometabolic risk factors than lower scores ( p s&lt;.0001). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that disordered eating is associated with a higher level of cardiometabolic risks in Chinese women, corroborating previous findings in other ancestries. For women with disordered eating symptoms, especially shape and weight concerns, healthcare providers should screen for their risks of cardiometabolic diseases. Future studies should investigate mechanisms underlying this comorbidity.