Elevated Binge Eating and Bulimia Rates in Women With PCOS: Study

USA: A study featured in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism has informed the 2023 PCOS Guidelines, highlighting the need to consider the risk of disordered eating and eating disorders in women with PCOS, irrespective of their weight, especially when offering lifestyle counseling.

In this study, Laura G. Cooney, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Wisconsin contributed to the 2023 International PCOS Guideline by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the prevalence of disordered eating and eating disorders in women with and without PCOS.

For this study, databases including Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycInfo, and All EMB were searched from their inception up to February 1, 2024, to find studies that compared the prevalence of eating disorders or disordered eating in adolescent and adult women. Random effects meta-analyses were utilized to calculate the pooled odds ratios (OR) or standardized mean differences (SMD) for outcomes in women with PCOS versus controls. The methodological quality of the studies was evaluated using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) system, and the included studies were assessed for potential bias.

The key findings of the study were:

• Out of 1,352 articles identified, 20 studies were included, involving 28,922 women with PCOS and 258,619 controls.
• Women with PCOS had 1.53 times higher odds of having any eating disorder, according to eight studies.
• The increased odds of eating disorders in women with PCOS persisted, particularly in studies where PCOS was diagnosed using the Rotterdam criteria.
• The odds of bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and disordered eating were higher in women with PCOS, but there was no increased risk for anorexia nervosa.
• Women with PCOS also had higher mean disordered eating scores (SMD: 0.52), as shown in 13 studies, even when accounting for normal and higher weight body mass index.

The researchers stressed that their study calls for attention to the risk of disordered eating and eating disorders in women with PCOS, regardless of their weight, with a special emphasis on lifestyle counseling.

Reference

Laura G Cooney, Kaley Gyorfi, Awa Sanneh, Leeann M Bui, Aya Mousa, Chau Thien Tay, Helena Teede, Elisabet Stener-Victorin, Leah Brennan, Increased Prevalence of Binge Eating Disorder and Bulimia Nervosa in Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 2024;, dgae462, https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgae462