Eating disorder symptoms and online searching behavior

Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je odrediti koje teme pretraživane na internetu mogu uspješno razlikovati žene rizične za razvoj poremećaja hranjenja od onih nerizičnih. Također je ispitivana povezanost između triju subskala perfekcionizma i frekvencije online pretraživanja tema povezanih s poremećajima hranjenja. Istraživanje je provedeno online na prigodnom uzorku od 228 žena. Nakon odgovaranja na sociodemografska pitanja, sudionice su dale svoje odgovore na CSS skali cyberchondrije, SCOFF upitniku za poremećaje hranjenja, APS-R skali za perfekcionizam i kratkoj listi označavanja koja ispituje frekvenciju pretraživanja pojedine teme na internetu. Rezultati pokazuju da se žene kategorizirane kao one s rizikom i one bez rizika prema SCOFF-u, mogu razlikovati po pretraživanim terminima vezanim uz hranu, dijete, vježbanje, izgled tijela i poremećaje hranjenja. Diskriminacijska analiza pokazala je da su najuspješnije u klasifikaciji sudionica u dvije grupe teme vezane uz hranu. Podljestvice APS-R upitnika (Standardi, Diskrepanca i Red), korištene su u hijerarhijskoj regresijskoj analizi za predikciju učestalosti pretraživanja tema online. Samo se Diskrepanca, mjera neadaptivnog perfekcionizma, pokazala značajnim prediktorom. Medijator ovoj povezanosti je izraženost simptoma poremećaja hranjenja na SCOFF-u. Ovi nalazi upućuju na to da žene s povećanim rizikom za razvoj poremećaja hranjenja češće koriste internet za pretraživanje metoda za gubitak kilograma, posebno one povezane s držanjem dijete i hranom općenito.The objective of this study was to determine what topics searched on the Internet can successfully distinguish women who are at risk from those non-risk for an eating disorder development. The connection between three subscales of perfectionism and frequency of online searching for eating disorders related topics has also been examined. Research was conducted online with convenience sample consisting of 228 women. After completing sociodemographic data, participants fulfilled CSS questionnaire for cyberchondria, SCOFF questionnaire for eating disorders, APS-R for perfectionism and short check-list measuring the frequency of certain topic searched on the Internet. Results indicate that risk and non-risk women, according to SCOFF, can be differentiated by searching terms related to food, diets, exercising, body appearance and eating disorders. Discriminant analysis showed that area most successful in a classification of participants into two groups is food. Subscales of APS-R (the Standards, Discrepancy, and Order) were used in the hierarchical regression analysis for prediction of online searched topics frequency. Only Discrepancy subscale, measure of maladaptive perfectionism, appeared as a significant predictor. This relationship is mediated by eating disorder symptoms on SCOFF screener. These findings suggest that women with higher risk of eating disorder development more frequently use the Internet for searching weight-loss methods, especially those related to dieting and food in general