"If I could survive without eating, it would be a huge relief": Development and initial validation of the Fear of Food Questionnaire.

BACKGROUND: Fear of food and behavioral avoidance of specific foods, food groups, and food related social situations can substantially reduce health related quality of life in individuals with a wide range of conditions that affect appetite, eating behavior, and digestion, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), vomit and choking phobias, and food allergies/sensitivities. When this avoidance leads to weight/nutritional and/or psychosocial impairment, the diagnostic criteria for Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) are met. Fear of food is an important target for interventions designed to improve psychosocial functioning and quality of life in such individuals. The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a novel measure of fear of food. METHODS: Participants (n = 1138) were recruited from ongoing clinical trials for both IBD and IBS, from Amazon's Mechanical Turk, from Reddit support forums for IBS, IBD, and vomit phobia, and from an undergraduate subject pool. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, Pearson's correlations, one-way ANOVA, and intraclass correlation coefficients were used to assess the validity and reliability of the Fear of Food Questionnaire. RESULTS: The final 18 item questionnaire showed excellent internal consistency, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, discriminative (known groups) validity, as well as good factor structure. Fear of food was highly correlated with visceral hypersensitivity, catastrophizing, GI symptom severity and health related quality of life, as well as with self-reported Fear-ARFID symptoms. Individuals meeting study criteria for Fear-ARFID reported the highest scores relative to control and other analogue clinical groups. CONCLUSION: The Fear of Food Questionnaire appears to be reliable and valid across populations and may be a valuable tool in the assessment and treatment of Fear-ARFID.

Comparison of quality of life, symptom and functional outcomes following surgical treatment for colorectal neoplasia.

BACKGROUND: Colorectal surgical procedures can have a significant impact on quality-of-life (QoL), functional and symptom outcomes. This retrospective study conducted in a tertiary care center evaluated the influence of four colorectal surgical procedures on patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). METHODS: 512 patients undergoing colorectal neoplasia surgery between June 2015 and December 2017 were identified via the Cabrini Monash Colorectal Neoplasia database. Primary outcomes measured were the mean changes in PROMs following surgery utilizing the International Consortium of Health Outcome Measures colorectal cancer (CRC) PROMs. RESULTS: 242 patients from 483 eligible patients responded (50% participation rate). Responders and non-responders were comparable in median age (72 vs. 70 years), gender (48% vs. 52% male), time from surgery (<1 and >1 year), overall stage at diagnosis and type of surgery. Respondents underwent either a right hemicolectomy, ultra-low anterior resection, abdominoperineal resection or a transanal endoscopic microsurgery/transanal minimally invasive surgery. Right hemicolectomy patients reported the best post-operative function and reduced symptoms, significantly better (P < 0.01) than ultra-low anterior resection patients who reported the worst outcomes in multiple areas (body image, embarrassment, flatulence, diarrhoea, stool frequency). Furthermore, patients undergoing an abdominoperineal resection reported the worst scores for body image, urinary frequency, urinary incontinence, buttock pain, faecal incontinence and male impotence. CONCLUSIONS: The differences in PROMs in CRC surgical procedures is demonstrable. The worst post-operative functional and symptom scores were reported after either an ultra-low anterior resection or an abdominoperineal resection. Implementation of PROMs will identify and aid early patient referral to allied health and support services.