[The incidence of pathological eating behaviour among schoolchildren in a large urban area]. / Zur Verbreitung pathologischen Essverhaltens unter Schülerinnen und Schülern einer Grossstadt.

Clinical experience and international epidemiological studies indicate an increase in pathological eating behaviour as well as a shift towards increasingly younger children. In order to study its frequency in Germany a large random sample, 2,844 pupils of the 10 th class level were contacted as part of a school medical examination to take part in a questionnaire study using the Eating Disorder Inventory. Age, gender, BMI and the type of school were also recorded. From the statistical description of healthy matching samples, gender-specific cut-off values were established and this methodical approach was discussed critically. Of the predominantly 15/16-year-old schoolchildren, 83 % took part in the study. Regardless of gender and type of school, more than 7% had an anorexic body weight and 10% of female and 2% of male pupils had bulimic eating behaviour.