Prevalence of Eating Disorders in Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes: A Cohort Comparison of Patients and Controls

People suffering from diabetes mellitus, need to make minor or major lifestyle adjustments. These adjustments can lead to either successful adherence to medical regimens and control of the disease or, on the contrary, to an ineffective or maladaptive coping [1]. Type 2 diabetes patients (T2DM) have to adhere to some responsibilities such as: modification of lifestyle (diet, exercise, and weight control), self-monitoring of blood glucose concentrations, foot care, and administration of medications. Difficulties in properly implementing these tasks can be associated with suboptimum glycemic control [2]. Comorbidity like psychological diseases such as depression, anxiety [3, 4] and eating disorders [5] difficult the aforementioned lifestyle adjustments and are associated with bad metabolic control and vascular complications. The association of eating disorders (ED) with diabetes is recognized in the scientific literature, but the majority of studies focus on ED in young females with type 1 diabetes mellitus [6, 7], whereas the more common type 2 diabetes mellitus disease has attracted substantially less interest. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of ED in a type 2 diabetes patients cohort, to identify the more predominant forms of ED in patients with T2DM, and to clarify if ED is associated with impaired metabolic control in these patients.