(PS7-19) Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Weight History Interview for Disordered Eating

Most individuals with anorexia or bulimia nervosa lose a significant amount of weight in the process of developing an eating disorder. Weight suppression, the difference between an individual’s highest past weight and their current weight, has been associated with a wide range of behavioral, cognitive, and biological facets of eating disorders such as purging frequency, drive for thinness, leptin levels, and future weight gain (Lowe et al., 2018; Lowe et al., 2020). Additionally, there is emerging evidence that other aspects of weight history (e.g., the difference between an individual’s highest past weight and their lowest past weight) are also associated with measures of eating disorder psychopathology (Carter et al., 2008; Conceição et al., 2022; Khalil et al., 2024). Given how consistently weight history is related to theoretically and clinically relevant eating disorder characteristics, it would be highly desirable to develop a framework whereby an individual patient’s weight history could be measured in a clinically-applicable, systematic, and replicable way. This study represents the first stage in the development of a semi-structured weight history interview for eating disorders. Using an analogue population of women ages 18-30 who score above an established “at risk” cutoff on a measure of eating disorder symptoms, we will evaluate the first iteration of the Weight History Interview. Participants will complete a battery of several established self-report measures and participate in an hour-long Weight History Interview. Data collection is in progress, and preliminary statistical analyses/results will be available before the Annual Convention. Results will 1) measure the participant’s perceptions of the impact of their weight history on the development and perpetuation of their eating/weight concerns, 2) explore the relationships between quantitative measures of weight history and standard measures of eating disorder psychopathology, and 3) assess the emotional impact on participants of discussing their weight history in depth. The long-term goal of this project is to establish a psychometrically-sound, interview-based measure of weight history that can be incorporated into both treatment settings and research studies of eating disorders.