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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

A Computer-Based Platform for Aiding Clinicians in Eating Disorder Analysis and Diagnosis
Published on: May 10, 2022
Comparison of body size estimation in adolescents with different types of eating disorders
Nora Schneider1, Katja Frieler, Ernst Pfeiffer
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Virchow Klinikum, Germany. nora.schneider@charite.de
Objective:
To examine differences in body size estimation in adolescents with different types of eating disorders.
Method:
A total of 129 patients with eating disorders (M(age) = 16.0 +/- 1.8) and 354 healthy control participants (CP) (M(age) = 15.2 +/- 2.1) completed the EDI-2 and were asked to estimate the circumference of selected body parts by using string (BID-CA).
Results:
CP showed an average overestimation of 8-16%, depending on the estimated body part. Eating disorder patients overestimated their body parts on average by about 30%. Thigh and waist estimations were the best variables for discriminating between patients with eating disorders and CP. No significant differences were found between bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa patients.
Conclusions:
Body image distortion plays an important role in both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The BID-CA is well suited to discriminate between healthy and disordered overestimation of body parts.
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