Eating disorders (ED's) are a group of disorders characterized by abnormal eating behaviors ranging from insufficient to excessive food intake, with concurrent disturbances in thoughts and emotions. Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is the most prevalent ED in both men and women, yet was only recently included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fifth edition (DSM-5) as a diagnostic entity.~In general, ED's have been associated with significantly worse health related quality of life (HRQoL) compared to healthy population.~High rates of overweight (BMI ≥ 25) and obesity (BMI ≥ 30) are found in BED patients and obesity in itself is associated with lower QoL. The most widely used tools to measure Qol in ED's are the Medical Outcome Studies Short Form (SF) Scale, e.g. SF-36 and SF-12, which are generic in nature. Generic QoL measures have shown lack of sensitivity for some ED diagnoses and might not be suitable enough to pick up unique features that might characterize each disorder.~The objective of this study is to evaluate quality of life in Danish BED patients before treatment by using disease specific Qol measure. Furthermore, we want to assess the impact of obesity and depression on disease specific Qol in BED patients. The hypothesis are that obesity and depression will be associated with an impaired level of disease specific Qol.
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) patients tend to report low quality of life (Qol). However, research is limited. Most research on Qol in BED include generic measures, rather than disease specific. Obesity is prevalent in BED, but contradicting evidence exists on the influence of obesity in BED.