[Anorexic behavior in a population of high-school students of a health area]

To calculate the prevalence of eating attitudes which determine eating disorders and their relationship to social, personal and cultural variables.

Prevalence study.

Centres of secondary education. Gijón Health Area (Asturias). Secondary school students (n = 17,000) selected by multi-stage stratified sampling.

The self-filled questionnaire included: social and personal variables, and Eating Attitudes Test 26 (anorexic conduct defined as scores = 20). Women also filled in the "Questionnaire on Influences on the Aesthetic Model of the Body" (CIMEC-26). There were 860 valid questionnaires, with 50% women. There was 12.8% prevalence of anorexic attitudes among women (95% CI, 9-16.5), and 1.8% among men (CI, 0.8-2.8). In the group with anorexic attitudes, 87.3% were women, with mean age 16.4; 88.3% lived in a city; 84% were in middle and middle-to-low social classes; 92% were studying their bachillerato; 28.5% attended private schools; 27% undertook activities related to having a thin body; 18.3% had separated parents; 27% had mothers working outside the home; 39.7% saw themselves as fat; and 81% wished to slim. The following variables showed statistically significant differences with the normal population: sex (OR = 7.7; 95% CI, 4.5-13.4), separated parents (OR = 1.9; CI, 1.4-2.8), undertaking activities relating to having a thin body (OR = 3.7; CI, 2.7-5.2); thinking oneself fat (OR = 4.7; CI, 3.1-7.1) and wishing to slim (OR = 7.2; CI, 4.6-11.2). 94.5% of women with disordered conduct showed a disorder on the CIMEC-26.

There is a high prevalence of eating habits similar to those of patients with anorexia nervosa, which are related to the following variables: being a woman, having separated parents, seeing oneself as fat, desiring to slim and undertaking activities related to having a thin body. We observed no significant differences with the normal population in other social and personal variables. The socially imposed aesthetic model of the body determines anorexic conduct in women.