Effectiveness of day treatment for eating disorders: are improvements maintained at 12-month follow-up?
ISSN: 1361-9322
Article publication date: 24 August 2020
Issue publication date: 7 October 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a specialist UK day treatment programme (DTP), in terms of whether improvements in eating disorder symptomology and psychosocial impairment achieved at discharge were maintained at 6-month and 12-month follow-ups.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 69 patients (aged 16+) with eating disorders who had received treatment in the DTP were reviewed at 6-month and 12-month follow-ups, using demographic, physiological and psychological measures. Quantitative outcomes were analysed using one-way repeated measures analysis of variance.
Findings
Data analysis revealed that significant improvements in eating disordered attitudes, body mass index (among underweight participants), binge frequency (among participants with those symptoms) and psychosocial impairment achieved at discharge, were also maintained at 6-month and 12-month follow-ups, and with large effect sizes. All hypotheses were supported, with the exception that frequency of vomiting symptoms had deteriorated at the 12-month follow-up and was no longer significantly different from vomiting frequency on admission.
Originality/value
Results provide support for the sustained effectiveness of DTPs in improving eating disorder symptoms and psychosocial impairment associated with eating disorders. This is the first study to evaluate the effectiveness of a UK DTP for adults at maintaining improvements to eating disorder symptoms and attitudes at follow-up.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the patients and staff at the Gloucestershire Eating Disorders Day Treatment Programme.No conflicts of interest or funding grants.
Citation
Hepburn, Z.M. and Rothwell, E.R. (2020), "Effectiveness of day treatment for eating disorders: are improvements maintained at 12-month follow-up?", Mental Health Review Journal, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 255-268. https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-09-2019-0032
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited