Medical Student Wake Forest School of Medicine of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, United States
Background: The prevalence of eating disorders and DEB and associated risk of morbidity and mortality have increased steadily over the years. Additionally, there is a significantly increased prevalence of DEB post-puberty compared to pre-puberty in the general population. We recently published the finding that DEB prevalence is higher in youth with HTN disorders compared to the general population. However, no data exists on the role puberty plays in the relationship between gender and DEB development in youth with HTN. Objective: The objective of this study is to estimate the association between pubertal status and DEB and then determine whether pubertal status modifies the strength of the association between sex or gender and DEB in adolescents with HTN disorders. Design/Methods: This is an ancillary study of a recently completed prospective cross-sectional study of adolescents aged 11–18 years with HTN disorders. The institutional review board approved this study and consent, and assent are being obtained. We are excluding patients with diabetes mellitus, kidney failure or transplantation, or gastrostomy tube dependence. We are re-contacting original study participants. We previously measured DEB status using the validated SCOFF questionnaire and defined a positive screen as an affirmative response to at least 2/5 questions. Participants previously self-reported their sex and gender. Pubertal status is being measured via self-administration of the validated Pubertal Development Scale and categorized as a binary variable of pre, early, or mid-puberty vs. late or post-puberty. We will use multivariable generalized linear models to estimate the risk of DEB by pubertal status and, as an exploratory analysis, estimate the risk of sex or gender with DEB with an interaction term for pubertal status. For our effect modification analysis, we will stratify our models by pubertal status. We will use directed acyclic graphs to inform our models’ adjustment sets. We have collected data from 32 of 74 participants to date. We aim to have data collection completed by February 2024.
