Assessment of Parental Knowledge and Understanding of Eating Disorders

Recommended treatment of adolescent eating disorders includes active parental involvement. The purpose of this study was to assess baseline parental knowledge and understanding of eating disorders and how it is affected by participation in treatment. A cross-sectional and prospective cohort study comparing the parents of children ages 8 to 18 years seeking initial evaluation for an eating disorder at an adolescent medicine clinic (ED) to those attending appointments at a general pediatrics clinic (GP) was performed utilizing a 20-item questionnaire. There was no difference in mean scores at baseline, however after 2 months, the mean score of the ED group was significantly higher, while that of the GP group was not. The change in mean score from the first to second survey was significantly greater for the ED group than the GP group. Increased knowledge may improve self-efficacy, which plays a critical role in parents' ability to adopt eating disorder treatments.