Background and Objective: Eating disorders are known as an obesity-related psychological syndrome that occur mainly during adolescence and may continue until adulthood. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of eating disorders and some of their related factors among high school female students in Tehran, Iran.
Methods and Materials: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 2766 female students were selected from public and non-profit high schools in 5 distincts of Tehran by stratified random sampling. A two-stage approach using validated Farsi translation of EAT-26 and Eating Disorder Diagnostic Inventory questionnaires was applied to diagnose eating disorders. In addition, anthropometric measurements were made using standard techniques. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated and the subjects were catagorized, based on CDC-2000 BMI percentiles for adolescents, into underweight (<5th), overweight (85-95th) and obese (>95th). Data were analyzed using χ2, ANOVA and logistic regression tests.
Results: The data showed that 21% of the students had a score higher that 20 in the EAT-26 questionnaire the proportion with a score < 15 was 60.5%. The prevalence of bulimia nervosa and mild eating disorders, defined as absence of full anorexia or bulimia nervosa, was 2.1 aand 6.5%, respectively.No case of anorexia nervosa was found among the girls. Logistic regression analysis did not show any statistically significant asssociation between demographic variables and eating disorders, but overweight or obesity increased the odds ratio of eating disorders significantly (OR:3.72, 95%CI:2.45-5.67 P<0.0001).
Conclusion:The prevalence of eating disorders is still quite high among adolescent girls, although it does not seem to have increased much in recent years. However, considering the severe adverse effects of this morbid condition on physical and mental health of adolescents, studies to understand biological, environmental, social and familial factors effective in its causation and progress are highly recommended.
Keywords: Eating disorders, Adolescent, Overweight, Obesity
Roustaee R, Hajifaraji M, Dezhkam M, Houshiar-rad A, Mehrabi Y, Zowghi T. Prevalence of eating disorders and some of the factors related to them among high school female students in the City of Tehran, 2010. Iranian J Nutr Sci Food Technol 2013; 8 (1) :135-144 URL: http://nsft.sbmu.ac.ir/article-1-1242-en.html