Cohort Profile: the HUNT Study, Norway.

The HUNT Study includes large total population-based cohorts from the 1980ies, covering 125 000 Norwegian participants; HUNT1 (1984-86), HUNT2 (1995-97) and HUNT3 (2006-08). The study was primarily set up to address arterial hypertension, diabetes, screening of tuberculosis, and quality of life. However, the scope has expanded over time. In the latest survey a state of the art biobank was established, with availability of biomaterial for decades ahead. The three population based surveys now contribute to important knowledge regarding health related lifestyle, prevalence and incidence of somatic and mental illness and disease, health determinants, and associations between disease phenotypes and genotypes. Every citizen of Nord-Trøndelag County in Norway being 20 years or older, have been invited to all the surveys for adults. Participants may be linked in families and followed up longitudinally between the surveys and in several national health- and other registers covering the total population. The HUNT Study includes data from questionnaires, interviews, clinical measurements and biological samples (blood and urine). The questionnaires included questions on socioeconomic conditions, health related behaviours, symptoms, illnesses and diseases. Data from the HUNT Study are available for researchers who satisfy some basic requirements (www.ntnu.edu/hunt), whether affiliated in Norway or abroad.

A pilot study of a new assessment of physical activity in eating disorder patients.

BACKGROUND/AIM: In order to get more detailed information about exercise regimes and disturbances among patients with eating disorders, a new self report questionnaire was developed. The Exercise and Eating Disorders (EED) was developed to capture aspects not included in existing questionnaires. The aim of this study was to test the internal consistency and concurrent validity of the EED, and to investigate to what extent the questionnaire discriminates between inpatients and controls. METHOD: Fifty female eating disorder patients (anorexia nervosa n=25, bulimia nervosa n=10, EDNOS n=15) in a specialized inpatient unit and 51 female age-matched student controls were assessed with the EED and the Body Attitude Test (BAT). RESULTS: The results indicate satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha 0.92) of the sum score of the whole sample. The validity of the EED was supported by the correlation analysis between EED and Body Attitude Test (BAT) (Spearman's rho=0.84, p<0.01). There was a significant statistical difference between patients and controls in total score and subscales of the EED (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The preliminary test of the EED questionnaire was promising. It is a short instrument, and seems to distinguish well between patients and controls. EED captures other dimensions of physical activity and exercise disturbances not captured in other questionnaires related to exercise. Further research is needed to test the psychometric properties of EED in bigger samples.