(PS5-47) Clinician Practices Determining Expected Body Weights Across Eating Disorders: A Convergent Mixed Methods Study

Weight suppression is common among individuals with eating disorders (EDs) and has been associated with a host of adverse clinical outcomes. Given these associations, alleviating weight suppression is a critical component of ED recovery. To guide weight restoration, ED treatment often involves establishing expected body weights (EBWs). Although extant research indicates that individualized approaches for determining EBWs are common, multiple gaps in understanding remain around clinicians’ experiences setting EBWs, including whether and how EBWs are set for all EDs, what individualized approaches entail, clinician perspectives on different approaches for determining EBWs, and clinician training in this practice. To address these gaps, this study employs a convergent mixed methods design, systematically examining clinician practices determining EBWs for patients with EDs. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 24 multidisciplinary ED clinicians to explore their experiences in setting EBWs. Quantitative data covering the frequency of different approaches, common challenges, and training experiences is being collected (70/125 completed) via an online survey. From qualitative interviews, five themes were identified using reflexive thematic analysis with a critical realist lens: (1) Gathering data from multiple sources to individualize estimations, (2) Prioritizing ‘state’ over ‘weight’ in an ongoing manner, (3) Recognizing the limitations of population-based approaches to setting EBWs, (4) Setting EBWs across all ED diagnoses, and (5) Deferring to medical providers or dietitians with specialized training. Quantitative data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics to summarize key patterns. Upon completion of quantitative analyses, qualitative and quantitative findings will be integrated to identify areas of convergence and divergence. By systematically characterizing how clinicians determine EBWs, this study will clarify current practices and highlight areas for standardization and training. Findings will inform future efforts to develop best-practice guidelines for determining EBWs in ED treatment.