Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Khalida Ismail, King's College London, UK
- Second opponent: Associate Professor Ingvild Hernar, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Jøran Hjelmesæth, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Associate Professor Anne-Marie Aas, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Line Wisting, Researcher, Regional department for eating disorders (RASP), Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital
Summary
This doctoral thesis is situated at the intersection of diabetes care, eating disorder research, and preventive health.
Young women with type 1 diabetes face an increased risk of disordered eating behaviors and eating disorders, which are associated with diabetes-related complications and higher mortality. Yet effective prevention strategies remain limited. This doctoral thesis, including three papers, addresses this important clinical gap through research focusing on identification and targeted prevention, drawing on both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Paper I focused on identification through a cross-sectional validation study of the widely recommended screening questionnaire, the Diabetes Eating Problem Survey – Revised (DEPS-R). The questionnaire demonstrated good discriminative ability for identifying individuals with and without eating disorders, and the current cut-off showed high sensitivity, supporting its use as a screening tool in clinical practice.
Papers II and III focused on the Diabetes Body Project, a virtual, diabetes-specific adaptation of an evidence-based eating disorder prevention program for young women with type 1 diabetes. The intervention was evaluated in a multinational randomized controlled trial and complemented by a qualitative analysis of written feedback from participants and facilitators. Compared with the control condition, participants showed significantly larger short-term improvements in eating disorder risk factors, symptoms, and psychological correlates, while qualitative findings indicated high user satisfaction and highlighted the value of peer support within a type 1 diabetes-specific community.
Collectively, findings in this doctoral thesis may contribute to the development of an evidence-based clinical toolkit for eating disorder prevention, ultimately supporting improved long-term health outcomes in young women with type 1 diabetes.
Additional information
Contact the research support staff.