Using Continuous Glucose Monitoring to Passively Classify Naturalistic Binge Eating and Vomiting Among Adults With Binge-Spectrum Eating Disorders: A Preliminary Investigation.

OBJECTIVE

Binge eating and self-induced vomiting are common, transdiagnostic eating disorder (ED) symptoms. Efforts to understand these behaviors in research and clinical settings have historically relied on self-report measures, which may be biased and have limited ecological validity. It may be possible to passively detect binge eating and vomiting using data collected by continuous glucose monitors (CGMs; minimally invasive sensors that measure blood glucose levels), as these behaviors yield characteristic glucose responses.

METHOD: This study developed machine learning classification algorithms to classify binge eating and vomiting among 22 adults with binge-spectrum EDs using CGM data. Participants wore Dexcom G6 CGMs and reported eating episodes and disordered eating symptoms using ecological momentary assessment for 2 weeks. Group-level random forest models were generated to distinguish binge eating from typical eating episodes and to classify instances of vomiting.

RESULTS

The binge eating model had accuracy of 0.88 (95% CI: 0.83, 0.92), sensitivity of 0.56, and specificity of 0.90. The vomiting model demonstrated accuracy of 0.79 (95% CI: 0.62, 0.91), sensitivity of 0.88, and specificity of 0.71.

DISCUSSION: Results suggest that CGM may be a promising avenue for passively classifying binge eating and vomiting, with implications for innovative research and clinical applications.