Comparison of instruments assessing the readiness to change in patients with anorexia nervosa

Objectives: The study compares three instruments assessing the readiness to change in patients suffering from anorexia nervosa, and assesses their relationship to clinical data. Methods: Two of the instruments, the "Fragebogen zur Erfassung der Veranderungsbereitschaft" (FEVER) and the "Anorexia Nervosa Stages of Change Questionnaire" (ANSOCQ), are questionnaires; the "Readiness and Motivation Interview" (RMI) is a semistructured interview. The sample consisted of 44 anorexia nervosa inpatients. Results: The data of the three instruments correlate with each other to a medium high degree. Clinical variables such as BMI, bodyweight, and inpatient treatment duration show only a few, and mostly low, correlations. The therapeutic prognoses correlate with the motivation to change to a medium/high degree, whereas low motivation frequently correlates with negative predictions. Conclusions: The ambivalence of the anorexia nervosa patients shows up mostly on the RMI, which also displays the highest correlations to the clinical data and to the EDI-2 data.