Eating disorders: prevalence and risk profile among secondary school students

  1. Vega Alonso, Agustín Tomás
  2. Rasillo Rodríguez, María Ángeles
  3. Lozano Alonso, José Eugenio
  4. Rodríguez Carretero, Gloria
  5. Martín, Manuel Franco
Journal:
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology

ISSN: 0933-7954,  1433-9285

Year of publication: 2005

Volume: 40

Issue: 12

Pages: 980-987

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1007/S00127-005-0996-9 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openGREDOS editor HANDLE: https://hdl.handle.net/10366/155530

More publications in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology

Abstract

Background Eating disorders (EDs) are animportant public health problem in developed countries. Despite the amount of epidemiological studiesand causal theories, there is a great disparity of estimates and many questions remain still unclear. Theaim of this study was to estimate the prevalence ofthe population at risk of developing EDs and describe the risk profiles among adolescents and youngpeople. Methods A transversal design using a twostage cluster sample of secondary education studentsaged between 12 and 18 years was used. The surveyconsisted of a socio-demographic questionnaire alongwith the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT)-40 index and wascarried out between May and June 1999. Results Resultsshowed that 7.8% of the secondary school populationhad a high risk of developing eating disorders (EAT-40higher than 30). Females presented a higher percentage[12.3%; 95% confidence limits (CL) 10.4–14.3%] thanmales (3.2%; 95% CL 2.1–4.2%) at the highest risklevels. A decreasing risk gradient was observed withage. Conclusions The estimates show an importantdifference between the risk in females and in males andsuggests that the risk is incremented above all in thelast few years of infancy and the first years of adolescence, when these boys and girls are more vulnerable to socio-cultural influences and do not yet havedefined image and “behaviour models.”

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