An empirical study of the typology of bulimic symptoms in young Portuguese women

Objective: To investigate whether clusters
of bulimic symptoms exist in a community
sample of young Portuguese
women.
Method: A total of 2028 females, aged
12–23 years, completed the Eating Disorder
Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q).
Latent class analysis was applied to the
seven bulimic symptoms, age, and body
mass index.
Results: The selected 4-class solution
yielded a ‘‘healthy’’ class, reporting minimal
binge eating and purging behaviors.
A ‘‘binge eating’’ class, resembled binge
eating disorder. A ‘‘purging’’ class had
infrequent binge eating, but frequent
compensatory behaviors. Finally, in a
‘‘classic bulimia nervosa’’ class, binge eating
episodes were reported by 95% of
participants, and compensatory behaviors
were frequently endorsed. EDE -Q
global and subscale scores differed across
all latent classes.
Conclusion: In the community, three
natural patterns exist: binge eating plus
compensatory behaviors, binge eating
only, and purging in the absence of binge
eating. These results have implications
for future revisions of eating disorders
nosology.
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - FCT/POCTI/33252/PSI/2000, POCI/PSI/56433/2004