Childbearing and mortality among women with anorexia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the association between childbearing and mortality from anorexia nervosa (AN).

METHOD: A total of 5,251 females, from a population-based Swedish registry, admitted with an AN diagnosis during the period 1973-2003 were included. Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) were estimated and hazard ratios (HR) were calculated using Cox regression.

RESULTS

Nulliparous women had a sixfold higher mortality due to natural causes and ninefold higher mortality due to unnatural causes compared to the general population. Parous women had higher mortality compared to the general population only due to unnatural causes. Suicide was the most common cause of death. Childbearing was associated with a 65% lower mortality. One hundred forty four women out of 1,941 parous women were hospitalized perinatally for any psychiatric disorder (7.4%).

DISCUSSION: Childbearing is associated with lower mortality among women with AN.