Eating behaviors in adolescent Egyptian girls

ABSTRACT

The present cross-sectional study was designed to assess the prevalence of disordered eating attitudes and behaviors in school-based girls in Cairo, in which a modified Eating Attitudes Test was used. Documenting the development of dieting preoccupation in young children may help with early identification and perhaps lead to intervention strategies. The study included 137 student girls [age range 12-17 years] first group, [54] with age range 12-14 years and a mean age of 13.1 +/- 1.2 years and second group, [83] with age range 15-17 years and a mean age of 16.2 +/- 0.8 years group. Only 1.5% of the students scored >/= 20 on the ChEAT, which is the cut-off score for anorexia nervosa for the EAT-26. These were all in the 15-17 years old group, 2.4% scored >/= 20. The overall mean ChEAT score was more in the second older group 10.2 +/- 4.9 with a range of 3 to 28 compared to the first younger group 5.9 +/- 2.6 with a range of 2 to 12 [p<0.001]. We have no scores in both groups in the item "Eat diet food" and "Have the impulse to vomit after meals". Girls in the second group were more "scared about being overweight", "Preoccupied with a desire to be thinner", "Engaged in dieting behavior" and "Feel that food control there life"; whereas girls in the first group were more claimed that "others would like them to eat more" and "others think that they are too thin"